How Well Are Migraines Treated in Primary Care?

Even though migraine is the most common neurological disease, generating a high social burden, few migraine patients receive migraine-specific medications, particularly in general practice. To examine prescribing practices for migraine patients before referral to a neurologist, researchers identified 420 migraine patients who were first-time outpatients at one Dutch hospital neurology clinic, identified via the hospital database. The authors retrospectively collected each patient's clinical characteristics and drug status from the general practitioner's referral letter, hospital records, and a self-administered headache characteristics questionnaire. The authors compared the drug status of these patients with the recommendations provided in…