OBJECTIVES: Innovative treatments to prevent migraine have been approved by the European Medicines Agency in recent years. According to the European Headache Federation guideline, these innovative treatments are mainly recommended for patients with migraine who have failed previous oral preventive treatments. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the economic burden of migraine patients with three or more previous preventive treatment failures (TF3+) in Portugal from the societal perspective.

METHODS: We used published literature to estimate the size of the Portuguese TF3+ migraine population and the annual cost per patient. The size of the TF3+ migraine population was estimated based on the prevalence of migraine in Portugal and the proportion of patients with TF3+. Estimates of the annual cost per TF3+ patient were obtained from the Portuguese subset of an European online survey study and a cross-sectional headache centre-based study. We were able to find NHS medical costs (hospitalizations, emergency, consultations, exams, acute medication), non-medical direct costs (services and informal care), out-of-pocket expenses and indirect costs (presenteeism and absenteeism). Costs are reported in 2019 Euro.

RESULTS: According to available national data, it is foreseen that the annual societal costs related to migraine may average €5,890 per TF3+ patient and account for a societal cost of 131 million euros per year for the overall TF3+ migraine population in Portugal.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a high economic societal burden associated with TF3+ migraine patients. Knowledge about the economic burden of this population in Portugal should be considered to conduct the relevant healthcare policies and crucial to improve healthcare planning and optimize health resource allocation.