A survey of neurologists on the likeability of headaches and other neurological disorders

Abstract

Background: A pilot survey of 94 neurologists attending a continuing medical education meeting was performed to assess whether neurologists like to treat headaches and other common disorders and evaluate their personal prevalence of the disorders.

Methods: Physicians were asked to respond to the following statement using a 5-point Likert scale (from 1, strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree): "I like to treat patients with this disease or symptom."

Results: The response rate was 46% with a mean age of 52.5 years. The respondents liked to treat migraine (mean = 4.32) similarly to carpal tunnel syndrome and Parkinson's disease. Cluster headaches (mean = 3.90) are less liked than migraine similar to epilepsy and multiple sclerosis and respondents are neutral to treating chronic daily headaches (mean = 3.02) similarly to insomnia and low back pain. The lifetime prevalence of migraine among respondents is 48% with those with and without migraine comparably liking to treat migraineurs.

Conclusions: Neurologists like to treat migraine more than cluster headaches and are neutral in treating chronic daily headaches.