Migraines on the Job

When I was first diagnosed with migraines, I was a secretary and I was missing a lot of work because of my migraine attacks. So, when the doctor said he had a medication that I could take at the beginning of a migraine and be able to go on working, I was eager to try it. It was Cafergot, and I wound up throwing it out after about four attempts.

The Cafergot was just not for me. It wiped me right out; I slept through the rest of that day and night. The next day I would suffer through what felt like a drug hangover, and finally the third day would feel a little weak and washed out as if I had had a fever. In other words, Cafergot just prolonged my agony for about 24 hours.

My neighbor, on the other hand, swears by it. She has used it for many years with no problem at all. Just shows you that we all react to medications differently.

Anyway, with this history, I was very interested to read an article on http://www.mayohealth.org recently, about sumatriptan in self-injection form that is a boon to working people. The sumatriptan goes to work quickly and the person can get back to work. If only I had had this when I was a secretary all those years ago.

The Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute estimates that 700 million work days a year are lost to headache and general pain. Their figures for the annual cost to employers for each migraineur are shocking - $3,600 per woman and $6,800 per man. (I won't comment further on the huge difference in these amounts and what it says about the average pay for a woman in relation to that for a man.)

No one could possibly estimate how much money is lost due to reduced productivity on the job caused by migraines, but you can imagine that it's an enormous amount, and MHNI's estimate of the annual loss to the national economy due to headaches is $6-12 billion. That's with a "b," folks.

In other words, anything we can do to help people not only stay at work but also to function more normally when they have a migraine is certainly to everyone's benefit.

Now for the usual down side. Triptans as a whole are expensive. Northwestern University's information on them says you can expect to pay about $30 per injection, or squirt of the nasal spray form. Since this is so high, if you're fortunate enough to have prescription coverage, the insurance company may restrict how many doses you can have per month.

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