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Women and Migraine
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Women and Migraine

ARHP is sponsoring a continuing medical education (CME) program, Women and Migraine. The goal of this program is to improve provider competence in recognizing, discussing, diagnosing, and treating migraine with their female patients.

You may request an ARHP speaker to present this medical education lecture at your event, including clinical conferences or grand rounds sessions. To request a lecture, please click here to complete and submit the form. For more information about the program, please contact ARHP education@arhp.org or (202) 466-3825.

Background

Migraine headaches can cause debilitating pain resulting in days missed from work or school and overall decreased quality of life.1 Of all types of migraines, those associated with menstruation tend to be the longest-lasting, most severe, and most confusing and difficult to treat.2 An estimated 12.6 million women in the United States"up to 60 percent of all women migraineurs"suffer from these potentially disabling headaches just prior to or during their menstrual periods.3,4 The high numbers of migraines among women occurring at a time of great hormonal fluctuation indicates a connection between migraine headache pain and female sex hormones.5,6,7

Prophylactic and acute treatments are available to reduce the impact of menstrual migraine once an appropriate diagnosis is made. Yet despite the high prevalence of migraines among women of childbearing age and the functional impairment caused by these headaches, health professionals routinely underdiagnose menstrual migraine.8,9 As a result, women are not receiving needed treatments for this condition.

Program Design and Educational Activities

The Women and Migraine program includes many carefully developed components to meet health care providers' needs for education. All program modules will be established based on the results of comprehensive needs assessment and expert clinical opinion. Program components include:

  • PowerPoint slide set with talking points, case studies, and learning activities
  • A module that is specific to pharmacists' needs for clinical education
  • 12 visiting faculty sessions
  • 3 live and archived Webinar sessions
  • Epocrates MobileCME (PDA-based) educational activity (coming Spring 2009)
  • Integration of content into CORE, ARHP's on-line, open-access collection of peer-reviewed, evidence-based teaching materials

Curriculum Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be better able to:

  • Define migraine with and without aura
  • Differentiate migraine, menstrually related migraine, and true menstrual migraine
  • Identify behavioral and pharmacologic options for acute and prophylactic management of menstrual migraine
  • Understand when estrogen-containing contraception or hormone therapy is appropriate for women with migraine

Intended Audience and Accreditation

Educational offerings will be developed for health care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, pharmacists, and other professionals) to strengthen provider competence on the issue of migraine.

The curriculum, live sessions, and Webinars associated with this program will be accredited for continuing medical education, nursing contact hours, pharmacology, and pharmacist credits.

Funding

This project is funded through an unrestricted education grant from Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer.

References

  1. Brandes JL. The migraine cycle: Patient burden of migraine during and between migraine attacks. Headache. 2008 Mar; 48(3):430-41.
  2. Silberstein SD & Goldberg J. Menstrually related migraine: Breaking the cycle in your clinical practice. J Reprod Med. 2007 Oct; 52(10):888-95.
  3. Brandes JL. The influence of estrogen on migraine: A systematic review. JAMA. 2006 Apr 19; 295(15):1824-30.
  4. Lay CL & Payne R. Recognition and treatment of menstrual migraine. Neurologist. 2007 Jul; 13(4):197-204.
  5. Lichten EM, Lichten JB, Whitty A, Pieper D. The confirmation of a biochemical marker for women's hormonal migraine: the Depo-Estradiol challenge test. Headache. 1996 Jun; 36(6):360-71.
  6. Lipton RB, Stewart WF, Diamond S, Diamond ML, Reed M. Prevalence and burden of migraine in the United States: data from the American Migraine Study II. Headache. 2001 Jul-Aug; 41(7):646-57.
  7. Martin VT, Wernke S, Mandell K, et al. Defining the relationship between ovarian hormones and migraine headache. Headache. 2005 Oct; 45(9):1190-1201.
  8. Lay CL & Payne R. Recognition and treatment of menstrual migraine. Neurologist. 2007 Jul; 13(4):197-204.
  9. Silberstein SD & Goldberg J. Menstrually related migraine: Breaking the cycle in your clinical practice. J Reprod Med. 2007 Oct; 52(10):888-95.