If People Only Knew – the Power of Getting the Word Out
One of the challenges for migraine and headache patient advocates is simply getting information out to people. The reason is, many of the people that need it most don’t know that they need to know something!
Enter this fascinating study that took place in Rome, Italy. The researchers wanted to see if they could make a real difference in people’s lives by doing a one-time information campaign about migraine.
So they made the Casilino district their target. They sent letters to all households with information about ID Migraine. They put up posters in doctor’s office waiting rooms.
Patients got in touch, and 92% were indeed diagnosed with migraine. But amazingly, 73% had never consulted a doctor for headache!
The researchers followed up on these people with a telephone interview. They found that even in the long term there was general improvement – less pain, fewer and shorter migraine attacks – an overall better quality of life.
All this for people who mostly didn’t even tell their doctor about their symptoms.
The researchers did notice a lack of benefit in more severe cases. They feel that the answer is encouraging GPs to refer patients right away to a headache/migraine specialist, because generally the family doctor was not equipped to deal with the more "serious" cases.
But in the end, the campaign generally made a big difference in the lives of 1-2 hundred migraineurs.
We need to do a better job getting the word out, so that people know about the treatments that are available. But how can we do it? What are your ideas?
Would this ibuprofen ad grab your attention?
Photo courtesy of Arturo de Albornoz
For details on the study see Long-term effects of a sensitisation campaign on migraine: the Casilino study.
1 February 2010 @ 12:02 pm
I completely agree. I am have practiced medicine mainly in ER’s and Urgent cares for many years. I often encounter people wanting medicine for “Sinus Headache” or for “sick headache” and upon close questioning obviously have migraines. This Italian study shows how common migraines are in people and how little info people have about what causes headaches.
3 February 2010 @ 7:39 pm
Thanks for the comment, Bruce – glad to hear from someone who has seen this issue close up!
28 February 2010 @ 9:14 pm
Hi James,
As someone who’s suffered with headaches all my life, the answer is no…that ad for (hang on, have to scroll up and look-oh yea, Advil) would not get my attention. I’m not in the population described in your post. I did go to the doctor many years ago for the migraines. Ultimately, there wasn’t any med that actually helped enough to be worth the side effects and I settled on managing with ibuprofin with extremely limited use of vicodin as needed. This means I spend many days with a mild headache but it’s pretty easy to ignore. The good news is that I have far fewer attacks than I did years ago.
I guess what I’m suggesting is that there is a small percentage of people who have tried to get relief and failed and now believe that there aren’t really any solutions out there. I seem to be approaching it that way. 🙂 Perhaps it would be wise to assume that research and technology have advanced enough that new possibilities exist.
All that to say that an advertising campaign specifically mentioning that new developments can help without this side effect or that might indeed get my attention.