Can Ineffective Acute Migraine Treatment Lead to Chronic Migraine?

Using population-based data from the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention Study, the authors examined whether efficacy of acute migraine treatment predicted progression from episodic to chronic migraine during a 1-year period. The authors measured acute treatment efficacy using a validated questionnaire and categorized efficacy as very poor, poor, moderate, or maximum. They used regression analysis to adjust for age, sex, household income, headache frequency and disability, and acute medication class.

Of 5681 episodic migraineurs, 174 (3.1%) experienced progression to chronic migraine. Worse acute treatment efficacy was associated with higher rates of new-onset chronic migraine: 1.9%, 2.7%, 4.4%, and 6.8% in the maximum, moderate, poo…