Migraine - the new dodgy prawn excuse?

• Friday, 03 July 2009

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STRICTLY UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.00 ON TUESDAY 7TH JULY
Migraine - the new dodgy prawn excuse?

15% of workers who admit to ‘pulling a sickie’ use migraine as an excuse for not turning up to work1, according to new research from the makers of migraine treatment, Imigran Recovery, who did the survey to uncover people’s perceptions of migraine.

The research, conducted by YouGov, shows migraine has joined the well known food poisoning ruse as one of the most popular ‘fake illness’ choices. The fact that people are ‘faking’ migraines means real sufferers may dread phoning in sick when they have a genuine attack:

• 28% were worried their boss would not believe them1
• More than one in five (21%) believed their work colleagues thought they were using migraine as an excuse for a day off1
• One third (33%) felt guilty for letting their colleagues down1
• More than one in ten (13%) admit they have used another illness as their reason for being unwell

Lee Tomkins, Director of Migraine Action Association says: “The research shows migraine sufferers worry how their migraines are negatively affecting colleague’s views of them. Since the economic downturn we’ve seen 104% increase in calls to our helpline and we estimate approximately 35% of these are work related issues. These concerns are being exacerbated because more people are currently faced with the very real possibility of redundancy.”

The research also revealed work colleagues didn’t understand the debilitating effect of migraine:

• Almost a third (29%) are suspicious the person was using migraine as an excuse for a day off1
• Nearly a fifth (17%) felt frustrated they had to pick up additional work load when someone was off sick with a migraine1
• With one in ten (11%) admitting the sufferer should make an effort to soldier on and come to work as normal1

GP Dr Dawn Harper says: “Migraine is a debilitating condition and people who are fortunate enough not to suffer sometimes underestimate how unwell a sufferer can feel during an attack, often meaning they are unable to carry on as normal and have no choice but to put life, including work, on hold until they feel better.”

Unfortunately taking time off work due to a migraine increased sufferers stress levels, a key trigger factor believed to bring on attacks in the first place with 40% worried about work piling up whilst they were off sick1

• More than a third (37%) felt stressed on returning to work as they tried to play “catch up” 1
• More than one in ten (14%) believed that migraines have affected their career progression1

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For further information please contact:

• Jenna Gifford / Jessica Becker / Natalie Fraser
• T: 020 7025 6500
• E: imigranteam@redconsultancy.com
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Notes to editors

Cost of migraine:

• When a migraine hits, a predicted 50% of people have to take time off work2 and 73% have a limited ability to work2

• Absenteeism due to migraine is estimated to cost the UK economy £2.25 billion a year2.

Imigran Recovery:

Imigran Recovery can provide complete migraine relief. It treats the four major symptoms of migraine; headache, nausea, light sensitivity and sound sensitivity and can start to relieve migraine headache in around 30 minutes to help sufferers get on with their day to day life. Imigran Recovery is a sumatriptan-based treatment. Triptans work in a different way to painkillers by actually targeting the root cause of migraine.

Imigran Recovery contains sumatriptan. Always read the label.

www.imigranrecovery.co.uk

Information available:

- Expert advice migraine factsheet from life coach Gladeana McMahon
- Employer and employee advice from Migraine Action Association
- Managing migraine factsheet from GP, Dawn Harper
- Background information on migraines and the role triptan-based treatments can play

References:

1 Research conducted by You Gov, 2105 people interviewed 5th – 7th May 2009.
2 Headache UK’s “the economic cost of migraine and headache”. Based on a presentation by Dr. Tim Steiner, Imperial College, London.

This press release was distributed via Response Source, a service from Daryl Willcox Publishing, on behalf of Red Consultancy, The. For more information visit http://www.dwpub.com/pressreleasewires