18 peer-reviewed studies linked to Migraines (diagnostic code 8100) in the VA Ready app, sourced from PubMed and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Every citation is real and links to the source — bring them to your C&P exam or hand them to your VSO.
Meta-analysisPrimary2025
Prevalence of Headache Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-AnalysisNeuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · 2025
- Pooled prevalence of post-traumatic headache after TBI substantial across studies
- Migraine phenotype dominant
- Persists chronically in significant subset
Why it matters: Best-current meta-analytic evidence for TBI-secondary migraine
View on PubMed ↗Systematic reviewPrimary2025
Global, regional, and national burden of headache disorders, 1990-2021, with forecasts to 2050Cell Reports Medicine · 2025
- Migraine remains a top global cause of years lived with disability
- Burden disproportionately affects working-age adults
- Forecasts indicate continued high prevalence through 2050
Why it matters: Authoritative burden-of-disease anchor for disability impact arguments
View on PubMed ↗Cross-sectionalPrimary2024
Migraine Prevalence, Environmental Risk, and Comorbidities in Men and Women Veterans.JAMA Netw Open · 2024
- Lifetime migraine prevalence was 30.1% in women veterans versus 8.2% in men, far above general-population rates.
- Migraine was significantly associated with specific military service factors including post-9/11 service and OEF/OIF deployment, and with environmental exposures including Agent Orange, chemical/biological warfare, and anti-nerve-agent pills.
- Veterans with migraine reported worse general health, higher pain, greater pain interference with work, more psychiatric/neurological comorbidity, and greater lifetime opioid use.
Why it matters: Provides large-scale veteran-specific evidence that migraine is highly prevalent and tied to identifiable military service and environmental exposures, directly supporting service-connection and severity arguments for an 8100 claim.
View on PubMed ↗Cohort studyPrimary2022
Frequency, Demographics, Comorbidities, and Health Care Utilization by Veterans With Migraine: A VA Nationwide Cohort Study.Neurology · 2022
- Over half a million veterans (5.3% of 10.8 million VHA users) were diagnosed with migraine over 12 years; 1-year prevalence in 2019 was 13.0% for women and 2.5% for men.
- Men with migraine had higher TBI co-diagnosis (3.9% vs 1.1%) and women had far higher military sexual trauma (35.5% vs 3.5%).
- Common comorbidities were overweight/obesity (80.3%), nonheadache pain disorders (61.7%), and mental health disorders (48.8%); nearly one-fifth used the ED for headache.
Why it matters: Establishes the scale, demographics, military-exposure links, and heavy comorbidity burden of medically diagnosed migraine within the VA system itself, anchoring the frequency and functional-impact basis of an 8100 claim.
View on PubMed ↗Randomized trialPrimary2022
Erenumab versus topiramate for the prevention of migraine - a randomised, double-blind, active-controlled phase 4 trial.Cephalalgia · 2022
- Erenumab caused far fewer discontinuations for adverse events than topiramate (10.6% vs 38.9%).
- More erenumab patients achieved >=50% reduction in monthly migraine days (55.4% vs 31.2%), yet roughly 45% still did not reach that threshold even on the more effective drug.
- No new safety signals emerged.
Why it matters: A head-to-head preventive RCT showing that even best-available therapy leaves nearly half of migraine patients without meaningful response, documenting persistence of disabling migraine despite treatment as relevant to 8100 severity and chronicity.
View on PubMed ↗Cohort studyPrimary2017
Associations Between Traumatic Brain Injury History and Future Headache Severity in Veterans: A Longitudinal Study.Arch Phys Med Rehabil · 2017
- Headache severity was high among veterans receiving VA TBI evaluations (mean ~2.4 of 4) and persisted at 3-year follow-up.
- Moderate/severe TBI history was significantly associated with greater headache severity in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.
- Mild TBI was associated with greater headache severity cross-sectionally but not longitudinally.
Why it matters: Prospectively links service-related TBI to persistent, more severe headache outcomes in veterans, supporting causation/service-connection and the chronic, treatment-resistant nature of headache claimed under 8100.
View on PubMed ↗Randomized trialPrimary2017
Fremanezumab for the Preventive Treatment of Chronic Migraine.N Engl J Med · 2017
- Fremanezumab reduced monthly headache days by 4.3-4.6 versus 2.5 for placebo.
- Only 38-41% of fremanezumab patients achieved >=50% headache-day reduction versus 18% on placebo, meaning the majority remained substantially symptomatic.
- Injection-site reactions were common.
Why it matters: Pivotal NEJM RCT in chronic migraine demonstrating that even a modern targeted preventive leaves most patients with substantial residual headache burden, supporting the persistent, frequent, prostrating-attack picture claimed under 8100.
View on PubMed ↗Case-controlPrimary2016
Headache Prevalence at 4-11 Years After Deployment-Related Traumatic Brain Injury in Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan WarsHeadache · 2016
- Chronic daily headache prevalence ~20% in TBI veterans vs 1-2% in controls
- Migraine phenotype most common among post-deployment headaches
- Headache persists 4-11 years post-injury
Why it matters: Strong nexus citation for TBI-secondary migraine in post-9/11 veterans
View on PubMed ↗Case-controlPrimary2013
Migraine in Gulf War illness and chronic fatigue syndrome: prevalence, potential mechanisms, and evaluationFrontiers in Physiology · 2013
- Migraine prevalence dramatically higher in Gulf War veterans (~64%) than general population (~13%)
- Migraine without aura predominates
- Shared central sensitization mechanism with GWI proposed
Why it matters: Key citation for Gulf War presumptive migraine under chronic multisymptom illness
View on PubMed ↗Cohort studyPrimary2013
Traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and pain diagnoses in OIF/OEF/OND VeteransJournal of Rehabilitation Research and Development · 2013
- Headache/migraine highly comorbid with TBI and PTSD
- Polytrauma triad (TBI+PTSD+pain) common
- Migraine codes cluster strongly with confirmed TBI
Why it matters: Population-scale evidence linking deployment TBI/PTSD to chronic headache
View on PubMed ↗ReviewPrimary2013
Chronic pain and traumatic brain injury in OEF/OIF service members and VeteransHeadache · 2013
- Headache is the single most common chronic pain complaint after deployment-related TBI
- Migraine phenotype predominates
- Integrated multidisciplinary care recommended
Why it matters: Frequently cited summary for TBI-secondary migraine claims
View on PubMed ↗Meta-analysisSupporting2026
A multi-ancestry meta genome-wide association study of migraine among veterans: associations with traumatic brain injury, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.Mol Psychiatry · 2026
- Genome-wide meta-analysis identified 49 significant loci (36 novel) for migraine in a predominantly male veteran sample.
- Migraine showed high genetic correlation with PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury, though Mendelian randomization found no direct causal link.
- SNP-based heritability was 10% in men and 16% in women, with several sex-specific loci.
Why it matters: Demonstrates at the genetic level that veteran migraine is intertwined with PTSD, depression, and TBI, supporting the secondary-condition and comorbidity framework commonly invoked in 8100 claims.
View on PubMed ↗Cohort studySupporting2025
Cognitive symptoms in veterans with migraine or traumatic brain injury: A Million Veteran Program study.Headache · 2025
- Veterans with migraine reported cognitive symptoms (MOS-Cog-R mean 74.2) nearly identical to veterans with TBI (73.9) and far worse than those with neither (62.5).
- Veterans with both migraine and TBI had the highest cognitive-symptom and psychiatric burden (depression 64.4%, PTSD 54.2%, anxiety 47.7%).
- The migraine/TBI association with cognitive symptoms persisted after adjusting for psychiatric conditions.
Why it matters: Shows migraine alone produces cognitive impairment comparable to TBI in veterans, strengthening functional-impairment and secondary-cognitive-condition arguments relevant to 8100 severity.
View on PubMed ↗Cross-sectionalSupporting2024
Headache Disorders in VHA Primary Care: Prevalence, Psychiatric Comorbidity, and Health Care Utilization.Behav Med · 2024
- Migraine and chronic migraine represented the majority of diagnosed headache disorder cases among veterans, with PTSD the most frequent psychiatric comorbidity.
- Veterans with a headache disorder had higher use of primary care, neurology, pain clinic, and mental health services.
- Authors note a substantial proportion of veterans may have been misdiagnosed, suggesting true prevalence is higher than recorded.
Why it matters: Corroborates that migraine dominates veteran headache disorders, carries high psychiatric comorbidity, and drives multi-specialty healthcare utilization, reinforcing the functional and service-utilization burden behind an 8100 rating.
View on PubMed ↗Systematic reviewSupporting2024
Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990-2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Lancet Neurol · 2024
- Nervous system disorders were collectively the leading group cause of global DALYs in 2021.
- Migraine ranked among the top three nervous-system conditions by age-standardized DALYs, alongside stroke and neonatal encephalopathy.
- Age-standardized prevalence of nervous system disorders remained nearly stable while total DALY counts rose 18.2% from 1990 to 2021.
Why it matters: Establishes migraine as one of the most disabling neurological conditions worldwide, providing the population-level disability-burden context that underpins the high functional impairment claimed under 8100.
View on PubMed ↗Cohort studySupporting2024
Migraine and work - beyond absenteeism: Migraine severity and occupational burnout - A cohort study.Cephalalgia · 2024
- Migraine patients reported significantly higher occupational burnout than controls (mean 3.46 vs 2.82).
- Both migraine diagnosis and migraine severity (by MIDAS) independently predicted higher burnout after controlling for depression, anxiety, and stress.
- Migraine patients had higher depression scores and more often preferred remote work.
Why it matters: Quantifies occupational impact beyond absenteeism, showing migraine independently drives work burnout and reduced occupational functioning, directly supporting the occupational-impairment basis of an 8100 rating.
View on PubMed ↗Systematic reviewSupporting2024
Comparative effects of drug interventions for the acute management of migraine episodes in adults: systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMJ · 2024
- All active acute treatments beat placebo for 2-hour pain freedom, but absolute response remained limited.
- Eletriptan, rizatriptan, sumatriptan, and zolmitriptan had the best profiles and outperformed newer gepants/ditans (lasmiditan, rimegepant, ubrogepant).
- Findings support prioritizing the most effective triptans as preferred acute therapy.
Why it matters: Comprehensive network meta-analysis of acute migraine treatment establishing the realistic ceiling of abortive therapy, contextualizing why many veterans continue to experience disabling attacks despite optimal acute management under 8100.
View on PubMed ↗Cohort studySupporting2018
Remission of chronic headache: An 11-year follow-up study. Data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Surveys 1995-1997 and 2006-2008.Cephalalgia · 2018
- Of participants with chronic headache (>=15 days/month) at baseline, about 75% remitted to <15 days/month at 11-year follow-up.
- Remission was more than twice as likely in those without medication-overuse headache and without chronic musculoskeletal complaints.
- Remission rates were nearly identical in men and women.
Why it matters: Defines the long-term natural history of chronic headache, showing that persistence beyond a decade and presence of medication-overuse or musculoskeletal comorbidity mark a worse, more disabling course relevant to prognosis in 8100 claims.
View on PubMed ↗