Frequency of migraine among an unselected group of employees and variation of prevalence according to different diagnostic criteria.

A survey was carried out among 940 employees in a mail administration building in Hamburg, Germany to determine the prevalence rates of headache and of migraine, based on several definitions. Headache symptoms were assessed by means of questionnaires, which were returned by 92% of the addressed persons and properly evaluable in 87.8%. When 3 out of the following 4 criteria a) occurrence of headaches in attacks b) unilaterality of pain c) preceding visual disturbances d) pulsating character were required to diagnose migraine, prevalence rate was low (5.3%). It rose dramatically when only 2 of these requirements had to be met (18.0%); based on the definition that 2 of a), b) or c) had to be fulfilled, the prevalence rates were 13.1% for females, 5.6% for males. There was no difference in frequency of migraine between the two large income classes of mail employees. In accordance with other studies we found that only 57.5% of migraine patients had ever consulted a doctor for their headache; only 13.7% had done so within the last half year.

Headache syndromes as detected by configural frequency analysis.

Data on headache symptoms obtained in two samples (N = 422 and 304) by means of questionnaires were subjected to configural frequency analysis (CFA). This not widely-known method tests whether certain symptom combinations appear more often or less often than expected by chance. In both samples symptom combinations corresponding to the syndromes of migraine with aura, migraine without aura and tension headache did indeed occur with significant frequency. The same clear-cut symptom patterns appeared when patients with preceding visual disturbances were excluded from analysis. These results seem to lend strong support to a categorical model of headache, rather than to the concept of headache as a spectrum.

[Further comments on the so-called migraine personality]. / Weitere Bemerkungen zur sogenannten Migränepersönlichkeit.

In order to replicate previous findings, two studies were carried out comparing migraine patients and headache free controls in terms of degree of ambition, idea of tidiness, and rigidity. Migraineurs (75 Ss in study I, 82 in study II) were recruited in the frame of two large inquiries on headache frequency; control groups were made up of persons out of the same samples and matched for age, sex, educational level and professional status. Personality variables were assessed by means of a standardized questionnaire. Group differences did not attain statistical significance in any of the scales. Configural frequency analysis revealed that combination of increased ambition, idea of tidiness and rigidity, often considered as typical for persons with migraine, was actually more common among controls.