Almost 20% of people who experience a headache during Covid will develop chronic headache with migraine-like symptoms, says the study.

People who had headaches for at least a month during Covid-19 have a 50% risk of having chronic headaches with migraine-like symptoms 9 months later, according to a study from Spanish researchers.

The journal “Cephalalgia” has published the findings of a study conducted by members of the Spanish Society of Neurology’s (SEN) Headache Study Group in which the progression of over 900 Spanish patients with Covid-19 who had a headache as a symptom of the condition was evaluated.

According to this study, around 20% of individuals who experience a headache during the acute phase of Covid-19 acquire a daily chronic headache. As a result, the Spanish researchers emphasize the need to effectively treat the headache from the start in order to avoid the condition becoming persistent and evolving into an illness.

“Headache is a frequent symptom of Covid-19 and also a common symptom among people who have overcome the disease, but hardly any studies have been carried out that allow us to know the long-term evolution of this symptom,” explains David García Azorín, co-author of the study.

Of all the patients included in the study, about half had no previous history of headache, and although the mean duration of the headache was 2 weeks, in about a fifth of the patients it became persistent and continued as a chronic daily pattern: in 19% of patients the headache persisted at 3 months and in 16% the headache persisted at 9 months.

Furthermore, headache intensity during the acute phase of COVID-19 was associated with a longer headache duration.

“We found that in cases where the headache persists after 2 months, it is quite likely that it will remain present over time. And also that when the headache persists for a month, there is a 50% chance that the headache will still be present 9 months later. This shows the importance of prompt evaluation of patients with persistent headache after suffering from Covid-19″, comments Jesús Porta Etessam, co-author of the study.

The researchers consider that if this symptom were addressed correctly from the beginning, “many of the problems of chronification of this disease would be avoided.”

In any case, to date, there are no specific therapies, so most doctors treat post-Covid-19 headaches based on the similarity of symptoms with other primary headaches. 

“Taking into account the impact of headache on patients’ quality of life, controlled studies of possible treatments and their effectiveness are urgently needed,” the authors stress.

Source: 10.1177/03331024211020404

Image Credit: Getty

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