Almost 20 percent of patients who experience headache during COVID-19 develop chronic daily headache

La journal Cephalalgia, the official publication of the International Headache Society, has just released the results of a study performed by members of the Spanish Society of Neurology's Headache Study Group (SEN), which includes researchers from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) Headache and Neurological Pain Group, who analysed the course of over 900 Spanish patients with COVID-19 who suffered headache as a symptom of the disease. The study found that nearly 20 percent of patients who experience headache during the acute phase of COVID-19 go on to develop chronic daily headache.

According to Dr David García Azorín, co-author of the study and spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), “Headache is a frequent symptom in COVID-19 and among people who have recovered from the disease, yet little research has been carried out to understand the long-term course of this symptom. This is why we conducted this study, which included over 900 patients from 6 Spanish hospitals, and monitored their course over nine months.”

Out of all the patients included in the study, nearly half had no previous history of headache and although its average duration was two weeks, in approximately 50% of the patients it became persistent and daily, lasting three months in 19% of patients and nine months in 16%. In addition, the intensity of the headache during the acute phase of COVID-19 was associated with longer persistence.

As Dr Jesús Porta Etassam, co-author of the study and Vice-president of the SEN notes, “We saw that in the cases where headache lasts for more than two months, it is quite likely to persist over time. Furthermore, when the headache persists for a month, there is a 50% chance that it will continue for the next nine months. This shows the importance of early assessment of patients with persistent headache after COVID-19.”

According to Dr Patricia Pozo Rosich, co-author of the study, section head of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital Neurology Department and head of the Vall d’Hebron Migraine Adaptive Brain Center, “We are convinced that if this symptom is approached correctly in patients from the start, many problems with its chronification could be avoided. As it is, there are currently no specific therapies, so most physicians treat post-COVID-19 headache based on its similarity to other primary headaches. Bearing in mind the impact of headache on patients’ quality of life, controlled studies on possible treatments and their efficacy are urgently needed.”

Another of conclusion from the study is that greater frequency means that patients with persistent headache after nine months have symptoms similar to migraine. Such patients are also mostly elderly, most often women, who have had pneumonia less frequently during COVID-19, while their headache is slightly more intense, throbbing, accompanied by photophobia/sonophobia and deterioration in physical activity.