Triptans represent the most specific and effective treatment for
migraine attacks. Nevertheless, in clinical practice, they are often underused. Hospital workers, in particular physicians, are expected to be more aware of the correct use of specific drugs, especially for a very common disease such as
migraine. Aim of this study was to evaluate whether different hospital workers affected by
migraine are able to correctly manage the most suitable
therapy for their
migraine attacks. During a 1-year period, we submitted hospital employees to a structured interview with a questionnaire to investigate the presence of
headache and its characteristics. In particular, in the subpopulation of subjects affected by
migraine, we took information regarding their usual treatment for the control of attacks. The type of
drug and the category of the working activity were synthesized as two different ordinal variables. Difference in the distribution of the different
drug categories was evaluated with Chi squared test. Statistics was performed with SPSS 13.0 for Windows systems. We enrolled 1250 consecutive subjects: 20.3 % of the population (254 patients) was affected by
migraine.
Triptans use was significantly lower than that of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The distribution of the use of the drugs was significantly different (p < 0.0001) at Chi squared test. Among migraineur physicians, only 10.7 % used
triptans. Even in this subgroup, we observed a significant difference (p < 0.0001) in the distribution of the use of the drugs at Chi squared test. Our findings show a reduced use of
triptans among hospital workers. These data reflect the unsatisfactory dissemination of knowledge regarding the correct management of
migraine attacks and the advantages of treatment with
triptans. An incorrect therapeutic approach to
migraine contributes to the risk of the most important complications, such as drugs abuse or illness chronicization. These findings suggest that an insufficient awareness of
migraine-related therapeutic options also involves hospital workers, including physicians.