What do you need to know about migraines and long-term disability benefits? Anyone who suffers from occasional migraine headaches knows how debilitating they can be. For those individuals who suffer from chronic migraines, they may well be totally disabling. However, it can be challenging to establish entitlement to short or long-term disability benefits on the basis of migraine headaches. For this reason, it is particularly important to retain an experienced personal injury lawyer who has expertise and experience in the area of migraine headaches and can do the necessary to ensure that your benefits are approved.
Challenging Diagnosis
Migraine headaches are challenging to objectively measure, as abnormalities may not be evident based on CT Scans, MRI’s, or other diagnostics. They are also a primary disorder; in that, they are not caused by an underlying disorder or disease. As such, migraine headaches are frequently either misdiagnosed or under-treated.
It is important that you engage the assistance of your family physician, to ensure that your migraine headaches have been properly diagnosed and tested and that they cannot be categorized as another headache type (for example, secondary headaches which are caused or connected to an underlying disease, or cluster type headaches). Ensure that your family physician has made a clear, and unequivocal diagnosis of migraine headaches.
Tracking Symptoms
It is often helpful to keep a running log of your symptoms. Enter the dates and duration of the migraine. The type of symptoms you experience (auras, nausea, visual disturbances, or pain). The medication or medications that you take to alleviate the symptoms. Keep track of how often you attend your family doctor; a specialist; or hospital for reasons related to your migraines.
Having a record of this sort will help lend credence to your claim and is a way of providing the insurance company with some measure of objective evidence as to frequency and severity. This will also allow the insurance company to review this information in relation to the specific nature of your job, and the impact of the migraines on your ability the tasks of your own employment, and/or any employment.
Getting Help for Migraines and Long-Term Disability Benefits
Many insurance policies mandate that a claimant has been compliant with treatment and that those treatment efforts for migraines and long-term disability benefits have been exhaustive. If your family doctor makes a referral or recommendation it is crucial that you follow their guidance. Even if you are not optimistic about a treatment proposal, you need to demonstrate a willingness to try any and all treatments recommended by your physicians.
A personal injury lawyer with expertise in the area of migraines and disability will be able to engage the best experts to provide a medical-legal opinion as to the nature of your migraines, and their impact on your ability to perform the essential tasks of your employment, or alternatively, any employment. In addition to medical opinion, it can often be helpful to engage vocational exerts who can correlate the disabling nature of your migraines to the key components of your job description. This coupled with the detailed and thorough history established by you and your family doctor can build the foundation for a successful claim for long term disability benefits.
