Migraine
A neurological condition of recurring attacks: throbbing pain, often one-sided, with sensitivity to light, sound and movement. Episodic or chronic, with or without aura.
~15% of adults · 3× more common in women
What migraine actually is
Migraine is not “just a bad headache”. It is a disorder of how the brain processes sensory information, with attacks that move through phases: sometimes a prodrome of yawning or food cravings, sometimes aura, then the headache itself, then a postdrome “hangover”.
Understanding the phase you're in is part of managing it. Many people can learn to recognise their own early-warning signs and act before pain peaks.
Episodic vs chronic
The line clinicians draw is the number of headache days per month. Crossing it changes the treatment conversation, particularly around preventive options and medication-overuse risk.
- Episodic migraine: fewer than 15 headache days per month
- Chronic migraine: 15 or more headache days per month, for more than three months, at least 8 of them migrainous
- Medication-overuse headache: a common, reversible driver of chronification worth screening for
With and without aura
Aura is a temporary, fully reversible neurological symptom, most often visual (zigzag lines, blind spots), sometimes sensory or speech-related, that typically precedes or accompanies the headache.
Aura matters clinically beyond the symptom itself: it can influence which preventive and acute treatments are appropriate, which is one reason a careful history is worth more than a label.
From your story to a working plan
- 01The intake captures your pattern (frequency, triggers, aura, prior treatments) in your own words
- 02Your intake is assessed and structured, framing a working diagnosis against ICHD-3 criteria
- 03You receive a plain-language summary; your GP receives a structured SOAP note
- 04The diary tracks attacks against sleep, weather and wearables so prevention can be measured, not guessed
