LOS ANGELES – Nearly 40% of soldiers had migraines or probable migraines during their tours of duty in Iraq, but few had a history of migraines before their deployments, Capt. Brett Theeler, MC, USA, reported at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society.
Nineteen percent of the 2,687 soldiers surveyed upon their return met the criteria for definite migraines, 18% had probable migraines, and 11%, nonmigraine- type headaches. Those with definite migraines had an average of 3.5 migraine days/month, reported Capt. Theeler, of the Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, Wash., who collaborated on the research.
Just 5% of the soldiers had a history of migraine headaches prior to their deployments to Iraq.
After returning home from Iraq, soldiers are sent through a medical processing site. Members of one brigade completed a validated 17-question survey about headaches. Based on their survey responses, soldiers were divided three groups: definite migraines, probable migraines, or nonmigraine headaches, a system of classification similar to that used in the American Migraine Study.
The mean age of respondents was 27. The group was 95% male and 5% female
Capt. Theeler deemed the results “very surprising.” He noted that soldiers rated their migraine headaches as a mean 6.5 on a 10-point severity scale, lasting an average of 5.2 hours. Yet only 2% received triptans, the standard of care for the treatment of acute migraines.
Over a 3-month period in Iraq, soldiers made 603 headache-related sick call visits, with most being due to definite migraines.
Some of the causes of headaches among soldiers in Iraq are similar to “common migraine triggers for the general population: stress, heat, irregular diets. All those things are, of course, present in Iraq,” Capt. Theeler noted in an interview.
Findings from a 3-month follow-up survey indicate that many soldiers continue to have elevated rates of migraines after their return stateside.
“Now that we've recognized the problem, we need to go forward with treatments and proven study protocols to figure out why this is going on, and especially, what we can do,” Capt. Theeler said.
“We've already started educating troop commanders and troop medical providers, and our goal is to actually educate soldiers to help them get better treatment … while they're deployed and when they come home.”