New insights on the prevalence of anxiety and depression in migraine announced

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- New insights on the prevalence of anxiety and depression in conjunction with migraine in the US was announced by Healint -- the developer and owner of Migraine Buddy – the world’s largest migraine tracking and research platform.

These insights are an extension of the study on the impact of migraine on work productivity, presented together with Novartis Pharma AG at the Fourth Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) on June 16, 2018, a statement said.

It is also based on the self-reported data-points shared by Migraine Buddy application users showing that about 43 per cent of a sample of 43,189 migraineurs  suffered from anxiety and/or depression during at least one migraine attack.

Both anxiety and depression increased with increasing migraine chronicity such as the number of days in a month that the person experienced migraine whereby 34 per cent of the respondents with less than four migraine days reported anxiety or depression.

Founder and chief executive officer of Healint, Francois Cadiou said innovative technology, as implemented in Migraine Buddy helps patients and their doctors better understand, diagnose and treat this complex condition for the best possible outcomes.

It also helps doctors identify the best treatment choice for each patient using patient-reported real-world and clinical evidence as the combination of the right treatments and lifestyle adjustments benefits the patient and reduce the societal and economic burden of migraines.

Healint has formed a global alliance with Novartis Pharma AG which includes joint support of the Migraine Buddy mobile application to support the patient-physician conversation which may ultimately lead to better patient care.

Novartis has launched a pilot program in Switzerland which includes free migraine coaching and access to an exclusive version of the Migraine Buddy application to its employees.

Early results from an experimental study conducted by Healint show that a combination of lifestyle and dietary interventions can lead to up to 60 per cent reduction in monthly migraine days in people receptive to known migraine food triggers. Details at www.healint.com.