Identifying patients who require a change in their current acute migraine treatment: the Migraine Assessment of Current Therapy (Migraine-ACT) questionnaire

Abstract

SUMMARYBackground: Currently available measures of the efficacy of acute migraine medications are not frequently used in primary care. They may be too burdensome and complicated for routine use.Objectives: To design and test a new, easy to use, 4-item assessment tool, the Migraine Assessment of Current Therapy (Migraine-ACT) questionnaire for use by clinicians, to quickly evaluate how a recently prescribed acute medication is working, and to identify patients who require a change of their current acute treatment.Methods: A 27-item Migraine-ACT questionnaire was developed by an international advisory board of headache specialists. Questions were formulated in four domains: headache impact, global assessment of relief, consistency of response and emotional response. All these are clinically important measures of migraine severity and treatment outcome. All questions were dichotomous and answered by yes or no. Patients (n = 185) attending secondary care headache clinics who were diagnosed with migraine accor...