Soldiers Face More Migraines

(August 28, 2008) - Many soldiers suffer from migraine headaches (Read about "Migraine Headaches") and they may not be getting the right treatments. Two new studies show that migraine headaches are very common among U.S. military personnel, yet the condition is frequently underdiagnosed. The studies, appearing in Headache, the journal of the American Headache Society, examine the incidence among soldiers within 10 days of returning from a 1-year combat tour in Iraq, as well as U.S. Army officer trainees.

The U.S. active-duty military population is composed chiefly of young adults, which is the age group at highest risk for migraine. However, the reported rates are higher than those of similar age and gender in the general U.S. population.

The findings show that 19 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq screened positive for migraine and an additional 17 percent screened positive for possible migraine. Soldiers with a positive migraine screen suffered a mean average of 3.1 headache days per month, headache durations of 5.2 hours and 2.4 impaired duty days per month due to headache. Soldiers with migraine contacted 3 months after returning from Iraq had a mean of 5.3 headache days per month.

Eighteen percent of U.S. Army officer trainees experienced migraine headaches over a 1-year period (13.9 percent for males, 31.4 percent for females) and, of those, 50 percent experienced migraines during a 5-week period of intensive military training. Migraine headaches were found to significantly impede training in 4 percent of all cadets during this time. Seventy-six percent of cadets who screened positive for migraine had never been diagnosed.

Military personnel are likely to encounter numerous physiological and psychological factors that are known to precipitate migraine attacks and exacerbate migraine disorder. The factors include disrupted sleep (Read about "Sleep") and meal patterns, fatigue, psychological stress (Read about "Stress"), emotional strain, heat, noise and other environmental exposures.

Migraine is frequently incapacitating. However, if it is properly diagnosed and treated, the ill effects of migraine can be reduced or eliminated. The findings show, however, that there is a low utilization rate of triptans, which are first line agents for treating acute migraine among this population. Seventy-five percent of the soldiers with migraine used over-the-counter analgesics and only 4 percent used triptans.