Migraine: the seventh disabler

On 15 December 2012, a special edition of Lancet published the principal findings of the Global Burden of Disease Survey 2010 (GBD2010). Few reports are likely to have more profound meaning for people with headache, or carry greater promise for a better future, than the seven papers (and one in particular (1)) that were presented. GBD2010 was not the first such survey to be conducted, nor the first to give some recognition to the burden of migraine. The Global Burden of Disease Survey 2000 (GBD2000), conducted 12 years ago by the World Health Organization (WHO), listed migraine as the 19th cause of disability in the world, responsible for 1.4% of all years of life lost to disability (YLDs) (2). This finding has been cited repeatedly ever since; it has fuelled attempts to generate political acceptance of headache as a public-health priority (3), and given credibility to calls for greater investment in headache care and research. It pushed headache into WHO’s field of view, and became an essential part of the platform on which the Global Campaign against Headache has