Poor patient awareness and frequent misdiagnosis of migraine: findings from a large transcontinental cohort.

Background and purpose Although migraine is the second most disabling condition worldwide, there is poor awareness of it. The objective was to assess the awareness of migraine and previous diagnostic and therapeutic consultations and treatments in a large international population of migraineurs. Methods This was a multicentre study conducted in 12 headache centres in seven countries. Each centre recruited up to 100 patients referred for a first visit and diagnosed with migraine. Subjects were given a structured clinical questionnaire-based interview about the perceptions of the type of headache they suffered from, its cause, previous diagnoses, investigations and treatments. Results In all,…