How aware are migraineurs of their triggers?

Abstract

Background: Broad discrepancies in the number of migraine triggers have been reported in several studies. Migraineurs do not seem to recognize easily headache triggers in clinical practice.

Objective: To evaluate how aware migraineurs are about their headache triggers.

Materials and methods: We recruited 120 consecutive migraineurs. Each patient was first asked to report spontaneously any migraine trigger. Subsequently, the patient selected from a list of commonly known triggers.

Results: Ninety-seven patients (72.5%) spontaneously reported at least 1 migraine trigger, and 120 patients (100%) reported at least 1 migraine trigger selecting from a specific list of precipitants. The mean number of spontaneously identified triggers was 1.5 (±1.5), and the total number of triggers identified was 7.20 (±3.9).

Conclusions: A relevant discrepancy between the number of spontaneously recognized triggers and the total number of triggers was found. This may suggest that migraineurs display poor awareness about headache triggers.