Migraine is one of Australia’s most common neurological conditions, yet it is still misunderstood. Our 2024-25 national perceptions of migraine survey (N= 1,335; 80.6% living with migraine) reveals persistent stigma, gaps in care and the widespread impact on work, study and family life.
Key Findings at a Glance
- Prevalence: Over 4 million Australians live with migraine yet most underestimate how common migraine is, even those living with it. There is poor understanding of how migraine affects young children.
- Cause: The causes of migraine is still widely misunderstood with many blaming themselves believing the cause was something in their diet or lifestyle. Many people do not know it is a genetic neurological disorder with confusion about triggers vs causes.
- Experience: Migraine is now recognised to be “more than just a headache” but few can describe a typical migraine headache.
- Treatments: there is low awareness of triptans and medication overuse headache with high support for hospital care for those suffering severe attacks.
- Disability: migraine is recognised as an invisible disability, but not as a sensory processing disorder. There is more to be done in raising awareness that migraine is incurable.
What Australians Think About Migraine
Prevalence
- Most know that migraine disproportionately affects women however, migraine is underestimated in the general population. Even those who live with migraine significantly underestimate the number of people in Australia with migraine.
- The understanding of migraine in children is poor.
Causes
- There is a low understanding and acceptance, even amongst people who live with migraine that it is a genetic sensory processing disorder, believing they are to blame because of their diet or lifestyle.
- There is good understanding that migraine is not psychological, and just ‘in our heads’.
- Many do not understand the role of triggers with 23% believing migraine attacks ‘just happen’. Many confuse attack triggers as the ‘cause’ of migraine suggesting that more needs to be done to differentiate migraine disorder from migraine attacks.
Experience
- Work to date has been effective in helping to combat the stigma of migraine with high awareness that migraine is ‘not just a headache’.
- There is low understanding, especially for people who do not live with migraine, of the classic features of a typical migraine headache.
- There is also low awareness of the rare subtype symptoms and poor understanding of aura, including amongst those who live with migraine.
Treatment
- It is encouraging to see that there is high awareness people can seek support for emergency care during very sever migraine attacks.
- There is poor awareness of triptans, even amongst medical professionals and pharmacists in how it should be used.
- The majority of people believe that only neurologists and pain specialists can prescribe new migraine medications and are unaware of recent changes enabling General Practitioners to prescribe migraine specific medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Disability
- Migraine is widely recognised as an invisible disability, meaning it is a neurological condition that is not immediately obvious to others. Despite not being visible migraine can significantly impact a person’s daily life, activities and interactions.
- The low awareness that migraine is incurable suggests it is challenging for sufferers in their management of the permanent and lifelong condition.
What Needs to Change
This national survey confirms that while progress has been made, significant knowledge gaps remain. Migraine is still under-recognised, misunderstood and under-treated.
There are still too many people losing valuable time, productivity and quality of life to migraine. More work can be done, especially to increase the understanding of treatment options for people who live with migraine and how the disorder affects women, men, children and older adults.
- Improve public awareness of migraine’s prevalence and seriousness in Australia.
- Support medical professionals to better recognise, diagnose and manage migraine appropriately.
- Educate about triggers, symptoms and rare subtypes.
- Increase access to effective, affordable treatments.
- Embed migraine awareness into workplaces and schools.
- Recognise migraine in disability policy and service design.
Get Involved
We encourage all Australians, especially those affected by migraine, to share the findings of this research and continue advocating for better awareness, research and care. We'll be publishing key details across our social media in the coming days.
You can view our summary report here.
For a copy of the full Perceptions of Migraine survey data please contact [email protected]