Education, Connection and Support: A Prescription for Migraine

Migraine is a disorder of the central nervous system that runs in families but the exact reasons why some people get a migraine and others do not is unknown. We do know that about 2.7 million Canadians have been diagnosed with migraines and likely more are undiagnosed.¹ We also know that without proper treatment, up to 25% of these people suffer from debilitating migraine attacks resulting in an estimated loss of 7 million workdays annually.²

June is National Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, to draw attention to the issues that affect people with migraine and other headaches, and promote proper headache diagnosis, treatment and education.  

The Pharmacists Clinic (the Clinic) team at the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences has cared for hundreds of people with migraine over the past nine years. At times this care has been in partnership with the UBC Headache Clinic.  

“Every person with migraine headaches that I’ve met has needed—and significantly benefitted from—education and support”, said Dr. Nikki Domanski, a clinical pharmacist at the Clinic.

“People need to understand their own migraine presentation, and their unique triggers and determine acute and/or preventative treatment options that work for them. They also want and need connection with people in similar situations who understand each other.”

That’s exactly why the Clinic team created pharmacist-led migraine group appointments.

The group appointment concept (also called group medical visits, or shared medical appointments), was recognized as an important “new model” of care in 2004.^3,4 It brings people living with similar illnesses together to receive extensive patient education and self-management instruction while interacting with and learning from one another.

However, nearly two decades later, people are still underserved, so the Clinic team decided to create pharmacist-led group appointments, first for people with migraines, then for people with Chronic pain and Parkinson’s disease.

 “At the Clinic, our group appointment model includes a one-hour virtual session each month for three consecutive months. The sessions are facilitated by a Clinic pharmacist so people with the same medical condition can learn from and with each other”, explained Dr. Tiana Tilli, a clinical pharmacist who has recently evaluated the service.

Participant feedback from the group appointment sessions has been extremely positive.

“It is at times a lonely journey and often a disability that is unseen, so not well understood necessarily by others, that to hear other people voicing some of the same principal types of challenges is always meaningful and helpful,” shares a recent patient.

“Sometimes it might not be a new piece of information, but just the way it is presented,” commented another patient.

“It might be terminology, it could be just a lot of different things…you can have aha moments, right?”

“It’s time for all pharmacists in all care settings to consider offering migraine group appointments”, encourages Domanski. “That’s why we have taken our existing resources and created a Migraine Group Appointment Toolkit. Now other pharmacists don’t have to start from scratch to build their own group appointment service.  The toolkit includes slide decks, patient handouts, clinician resources, patient resources and a how-to guide.”

The toolkit is available here.

People with migraine, their friends and family, and their employers will be grateful to have this valuable service available in their communities, provided by a pharmacist they know and trust.