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

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.