Abstract

An inquiry about present or past history of migraine has been made in a factory of 4,700 employees.

The incidence of migraine among the 1,607 who replied to a questionnaire was found to be 4·9% for men and 13·2% for women.

A family history of migraine was found in migraine sufferers six times more frequently than in non-sufferers, and a personal history of travel sickness was found three times more often in sufferers than non-sufferers. It is believed that an association between migraine and travel sickness has not been reported previously.

Migraine was shown to be by no means exclusive to the “intellectual” or “brain-worker” but such people were more often compelled to stop work during an attack than were manual workers.

Treatment taken consisted of analgesics of the aspirin type in 60% of cases and of ergot preparations in 12·5%. The remainder were content to allow the passage of time to terminate their attacks.