This project is a quality improvement project to evaluate adherence to treatment regimens for preventive headache treatments in use in everyday clinical practice. Primary headache disorders constitute a major burden on individual patients, their family members and close relations, but also socioeconomically. Frequent episodic and chronic forms of headache often benefit from preventive treatment – first line options consist of oral drugs taken daily. Treatment failure on headache prophylactics is a common clinical problem and as with any such long-term prophylactic treatment strategy, adherence is a major concern. To date, therapeutic drug monitoring is not in use to guide clinical decision making in Norway, and as far as we are aware, internationally.
This project aims to investigate adherence through single blood sample measurements of patients admitted or visiting the hospital for whatever reason. Results will inform clinicians on adherence to current treatments and lay the foundation for future projects to improve clinical care for this patient group.