Migraine is not just a headache

Migraine is among the most disabling conditions on earth, and a genuinely complex neurological event, not simply a severe headache.

To call migraine a headache is a little like calling a seizure a twitch. The pain is real, but it is only the most visible part of a whole-brain neurological event.

A leading cause of disability

Migraine is one of the most prevalent neurological disorders, affecting roughly 15% of adults worldwide, and it is the leading cause of disability in people under 50.¹ It is the leading cause of disability for children and adolescents aged 5–19, the second for adults aged 20–59, and the leading cause of disability among women under 50, falling, cruelly, on people in the most demanding years of work and family life.¹

The pain is the symptom everyone sees. The disorder runs deeper.

What happens in the brain

Many migraines, particularly those with aura, are linked to cortical spreading depression, a slow wave of intense neuronal and glial depolarisation that travels across the surface of the brain. This wave can activate the trigeminal pain system and drive up the signalling molecule CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide), a key contributor to migraine pain.² It is precisely this mechanistic understanding, migraine as a disorder of brain excitability and specific signalling pathways, that has begun to transform how it is treated.

Why the framing matters

Seeing migraine clearly, as a neurological disease rather than a personal failing or a mere inconvenience, changes everything downstream: how seriously it is taken, how it is researched, and whether the many millions who live with it are believed.