By Faten Omar
KUWAIT: Emphasizing the need to raise awareness about migraine, Pfizer hosted a media roundtable alongside leading healthcare professional Dr Jasem Al-Hashel to highlight the difference between a headache and a migraine, understand migraine causes and triggers and how to manage them, and recognize when to see a neurologist.
A common misconception about migraine can be deduced when having severe cases of headaches. A migraine is not just a bad headache. It is a debilitating neurological disease that leads to an intense headache which may be accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, visual problems, or increased sensitivity to light or sound.
Migraines might range in the period. Some typically last between four hours and three days, while other people experience migraines several times a week. Some might only experience attacks every few years. Patients who experience headaches for fifteen days or more every month, eight of these being migraines, suffer from chronic migraines.
Although migraines are not life-threatening, they can negatively affect the quality of people's physical and mental lives, as they interfere significantly with occupational, educational, familial, and social responsibilities. According to a study conducted by Global Burden of Disease, migraine is the second most prevalent disease in Kuwait, with a higher prevalence rate in females than males by 1.8 times.
Dr Jasem Al Hashel, Consultant Neurologist, Neurology Department at Ibn Sina Hospital, Associate Professor of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine at Kuwait University, President at Kuwait Neurology Society and Vice President of Pan Arab Union of Neurosciences (PAUNS) in Kuwait, commented "Around 81 percent of the migraine cases in Kuwait fall under the age range of 20-54. While the causes of migraine are not fully clear, we know that genetic and environmental factors play a role, and often run in families."
He revealed that migraines are a very common disease among people in Kuwait, affecting 23 percent of the population and mostly affect women due to hormones factor, adding "It is considered to be the third highest disabling disease in the world, which causes disability and decrease of the functionality of people and the quality of their health."
Dr Al-Hashel indicated that the disease is severe and usually associated with nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, or voice sensitivity and it may be tiring and the person may not perform his practical duty, which requires immediate treatment or continuous preventive treatment.
Considering migraine causes, he indicated that migraine is also mostly affect doctors and medical students more than others because of tension, which is also triggered when exposed to psychological pressures due to life changes or certain events, changing sleep schedules, dehydration, where the patient must drink between 3-4 liters per day.
"Some foodstuffs will also cause migraine such as dark chocolate, especially black, Monosodium glutamate (MSG) a flavor enhancer often added to noodles, chips, chocolate, and nut salt, as well as caffeine in tea and coffee, aged cheeses, using screens for long periods, staying up late, changing the biological clock, soft drinks, weather changes where patients with migraine feel it before it happens," he continued.
Dr Al-Hashel stated that recently there was a major shift in the treatment of migraine compared to previous years, stating that there is more than 90 percent of the causes that are genetic and usually transmitted from the mother side, where studies have found that there are more than 35 genes known to cause migraine, noting "We cannot prevent migration from happening, but we can decrease the number of attacks by adjusting lifestyle to avoid triggers."
On the other hand, Dr Al-Hashel informed that headache diagnosis is very important, as there are more than 2,000 types of headaches, so it is necessary to know and diagnose because some of them may be associated with serious diseases.
"People experience the familiar pain of headaches for a wide variety of reasons, but what people do not know is that there is a difference between normal headaches and migraines. In some cases, headache may be dangerous if it hits a person for the first time and strongly or if it is accompanied by vomiting, fever, movement weakness, numbness, or if it comes for the first time during pregnancy," he underlined.
Dr Al-Hashel discussed the issue of children's migraine, saying that after the COVID-19 pandemic, parents started to have a problem keeping screens away from their children.
Regarding Pfizer's oral treatment for migraine, Dr Nadine Tarcha, Gulf Medical Director, Pfizer, stated "This medication is an innovative dual-acting oral migraine treatment which is approved for the acute treatment of migraine in Kuwait. It brings us closer to our goal of helping patients suffering from this debilitating neurological disease, many of whom do not have satisfactory treatment options today."
Dr. Tarcha indicated that earlier in 2022, Pfizer announced the acquisition of Biohaven, the maker of an innovative dual-acting oral migraine therapy which is approved for the acute treatment of migraine in Kuwait. With this acquisition, Pfizer believes there is an opportunity to change the paradigm in migraine treatment and potentially establish a new standard of care, adding "In particular, it reinforces Pfizer Internal Medicine’s mission of bringing breakthroughs to the health challenges that affect millions of patients impacted by migraine.”