Time lost due to an attack – a novel patient-reported outcome measure for acute migraine treatments

Abstract

Objective We propose a new outcome measure to assess the efficacy of migraine treatments translating the approach of the Global Burden of Disease studies from a societal to an individual level: Instead of calculating “years lived with disability”, we suggest estimating “time lost due to an attack”. Methods Time lost due to an attack is calculated by multiplying the duration and the degree of impaired functioning during an attack. Results Time lost due to an attack, different from other outcome measures, does not just focus on the short-term analgesic effects of treatments, but rather on the improvement of all migraine symptoms and restoration of functioning, also considering therapy-related impairment. Importantly, time lost due to an attack measures the entire time patients are not functioning normally, from onset to complete resolution. Conclusions Time lost due to an attack represents a new paradigm to assess migraine burden in single patients for a patient-centered evaluation of both acute and prophylactic treatments.