Validation of diagnostic criteria for migraine in the Zürich longitudinal cohort study

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a systematic assessment of the validity of the specific diagnostic criteria for migraine without aura, as defined by the International Headache Society (IHS), in a longitudinal epidemiologic sample of young adults who were selected from the general population of Zürich, Switzerland. Systematic modification of each of the IHS criteria for migraine without aura yielded one-year weighted prevalence rates ranging from 24% for the unmodified IHS criteria to 9% for the most restrictive definition of migraine. The major implications of the findings for the IHS criteria are: (a) they provide adequate coverage to classify the majority of subjects with headache in the general population; (b) there is little overlap between migraine and tension-type headache, suggesting that the criteria define moderately independent subgroups; (c) the criteria for migraine without aura appear to be too unrestrictive for application in the community, particularly among young adults at the peak period of incidence of migraine; (d) the criteria for “aura” need more precise operationalization; and (e) models of validation of the diagnostic criteria suggest that Criterion D of the IHS criteria for migraine without aura should be modified to require both gastrointestinal symptoms and photophobia and phonophobia.