Migraine is a common and frequently disabling condition. Nevertheless, many migraine sufferers do not consult for migraine, are not medically followed up and self-treat the attacks. In their study, Donnet and colleagues described the "Tour de France of migraine." This consisted of free-access conferences held in six large towns in France following a wide public information campaign. The sensitization campaign was aimed at providing participants with educational information on migraine disease and current therapies. Headache sufferers were then invited to respond to two consecutive questionnaires delivered at the end of the conferences and three months later to assess the influence of the information delivered on their migraine management. Tour de France of migraine recruited mainly severe migraine sufferers, most of who had already consulted and were medically followed up. However, migraine management was often suboptimal in these subjects since most of them found their acute treatment of attacks ineffective and only few of them received a prophylactic treatment. Three months after the conferences, more than half of respondents had consulted for headaches. There was a significant improvement in migraine-related disability, as reflected by a significant decrease in mean Headache Impact Test 6-item score, which might have been related to the higher proportion of subjects receiving a prophylactic treatment of migraine. The Tour de France of migraine campaign revealed the difficulty in sensitizing migraine sufferers towards the necessity of being medically followed up.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER: The authors concluded that mainly patients with severe migraine attended the conferences and derived clinical benefit from the educational program. Other strategies should be developed to reach a wider population of migraine sufferers.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A PATIENT: This appeared to be a well-thought out approach to reach patients with migraine headache. Although the program seemingly benefited only those with more severe migraine headaches, it had the potential to reach a broader range of patients with the condition. It is hoped that the “Tour de France of Migraine” is used on an annual basis.

A Donnet et al. Impact of a public sensitization campaign on migraine management in France. Journal of Headache Pain, May 30, 2009.