Disability and mood state in patients with episodic and chronic migraine associated to medication overuse

Abstract

This study aims to compare disability and mood state in patients with episodic (EM) and chronic migraine associated to medication overuse (CM-MO), and to assess the relationships between the two outcomes. Patients, matched for age and gender, were administered the MIDAS, the WHO-DAS-2 and BDI-2. Difference between EM and CM-MO was assessed with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test; difference in distribution of patients with severe disability and low mood was tested with contingency coefficient; the correlation between MIDAS, WHO-DAS-2 and BDI-2 was tested with Spearman's index. Seventy patients were enrolled: CM-MO patients reported higher BDI-2 scores and higher MIDAS and WHO-DAS-2 scores, and were more likely to have severe disability and low mood state than those with EM; BDI-2 scores were correlated with disability scores, particularly with WHO-DAS-2. The study shows that disability and mood state are negatively impacted by the presence of more frequent headaches and by the overuse of acute medications.