Migraine, headaches a growing problem for the military

Army Spec. David Hunt made it through a year of deployment in central Iraq largely unscathed. But two years after returning to the United States, he faces medical retirement from the military.

As Hunt, 37, describes it, there’s “really not any place” for him in the Army because of chronic migraine, the condition that has plagued him ever since an off-duty auto accident in 2006.

He has fought the symptoms (nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light) through deployments to the Arizona-Mexico border as well as Iraq. He recalls one particularly bad migraine hitting while he was alone and on guard in Arizona, and he vomited while seeking shelter from the harsh sun. “I did everything I could to just sit up and keep watch,” he said.

Hunt isn’t alone. Over the past decade, migraine and headache have become a significant problem for U.S. armed forces. A 2008 Defense Department report said diagnoses of migraine increased across all branches of the military between 2001 and 2007. Another, more recent study found that, among nearly 1,000 soldiers evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan because of some form of headache between 2004 and 2009, two-thirds did not return to duty. “Headaches represent a significant cause of unit attrition in personnel deployed in military operations,” the study concluded.

The stress and physical demands of serving in combat areas can trigger head pain, according to experts, and concussions and head traumas increase the likelihood that service members will later develop debilitating headaches and migraines.

Growing recognition has positioned headache and migraine among such issues as post-traumatic stress disorder as a military health concern, and the Defense Department is funding millions of dollars in research. Scientists are evaluating new treatments and therapies that could benefit not only military personnel but also civilians, the estimated 6 percent of men and 18 percent of women who have at least one migraine a year.

A 2009 study of more than 1.2 million U.S. participants in the Iraqi and Afghan military actions found the number who received a diagnosis of migraine increased 40 percent after a tour of duty.

The post-deployment diagnosis was especially common among those who had experienced concussion, anxiety or depression. Ten percent of men and 20 percent of women who had a concussion subsequently got their first migraine diagnosis.

More than 6 percent of men and more than 16 percent of women with a history of anxiety or depression while in the war zone then developed migraine.

Anxiety and depression continue to be issues post-deployment and are frequently linked to migraine symptoms, as is post-traumatic stress disorder. Together, these problems dramatically reduce the quality of life: According to Lt. Col. Jay Erickson, a physician at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., one in three service members with migraine is moderately or severely disabled by the condition post-deployment as determined by the widely used Migraine Disability Assessment test.

Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/11/10/health/migraine-headaches-a-growing-problem-for-the-military/