Please note - this EPG Migraine Knowledge Centre is for Doctors and other Health Care Professionals.

Migraine is a severe, episodic disorder with freedom from symptoms between attacks. Attacks are characterised by transient focal neurological symptoms, headache, or both.

Correctly diagnosing a migraine headache enables prompt and appropriate therapeutic intervention, reducing the distress and pain experienced by patients. An incorrect diagnosis of migraine can have a significant effect on both migraineurs and their families.

Several sets of guidelines have been developed to assist in the diagnosis of migraine.

Among migraineurs, understanding and assessing the severity and disability of a patient’s illness is an important step in ascertaining their treatment needs.

The Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire is a self-administered form that assesses the impact that migraine has on a patient’s work and social life. It can be used prior to and at the time of an initial consultation and throughout treatment to monitor the patient’s progress.

The use of a headache diary, which allows patients to record events that play a role in their headaches, is also a useful tool that may aid the physician in the diagnosis of migraine.

Despite the availability of migraine-specific medications such as the triptans, which are effective and well tolerated for the acute treatment of migraine, many migraineurs lapse from physician care before being prescribed an effective treatment.

It is advised that users of this resource consult their local treatment guidelines before initiating any treatment programme for a patient with migraine. Once migraine is diagnosed, patients and physicians should decide together how best to treat acute attacks and whether to use preventive medications.

Enter the Migraine Knowledge Centre

What’s in this Migraine Knowledge Centre?

Home | Is it Migraine? | Migraine: Quick Check | Migraine without aura: International Headache Society classification | Migraine with typical aura: International Headache Society classification | Headache | Primary headache | Secondary headache | Migraine Aetiology | What is Migraine? | What Causes Migraine? | Migraine triggers | Migraine Epidemiology | Economic Impact of Migraine | Treating Migraine | Screening | Diagnosis | Migraine Treatment Guidelines | Headache Care for Practising Physicians (HCPC) | US Headache Consortium Guidelines | Migraine Treatment Options | Acute Migraine Treatments | Triptans | Other acute migraine treatments | Preventative Migraine Treatments | Non-Pharmacological Migraine Treatments | Migraine Treatment Strategies | Step Care Across Attacks | Step Care Within Attacks | Stratified Care | Zomig | Zomig Nasal Spray | 'Zomig Rapimelt' | 'Zomig' Classic Tablets | Zomig full prescribing information | Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) Questionnaire | Patient Diary | Managing Your Migraine Booklet | Migraine & Headache Resources | American Headache Society (AHS) | Analgesics | Migraine Aura | Basilar-type migraine | Biofeedback | Chronic migraine | Chronic paroxysmal hemicrania | Classic migraine (migraine with typical aura) | Cluster headache | Cognitive behavioural therapy | Common migraine (migraine without aura) | Disability In Strategies of Care (DISC) study | Ergotamine | Familial hemiplegic migraine | Headache Care for Practising Physicians (HCPC) | Headache diary | International Headache Society (IHS) | Landmark study | Medication-overuse headache | Menstrual migraine | Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire | Migraineur | New daily persistent headache (NDPH) | ODT | Osmophobia | Phonophobia | Photophobia | Primary headache | Prophylactic medication | Secondary headache | Serotonin | Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) | Sinister headache | Tension-type headache |Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) | Trigger | Triptans | US Headache Consortium |