(Italian Migraine Registry, I-GRAINE-NEW)

Rationale Understanding the mechanisms and evolution of migraine is hampered by its nature as a chronic "evolutionary" condition. Patients often come to migraine centers after years of disabling disease, non-specific diagnoses and ineffective treatments. When patients are admitted to the center is therefore the time when their history in terms of disease evolution and healthcare costs is most effectively collected, but also when it is assumed that the treatment strategy offered to the patient will have a greater impact. For this reason, it was decided to conduct a large-scale retrospective and prospective observational study in order to draw a detailed picture of the situation of patients not followed by a specialized center and of the natural history of the disease once the pathway at the specialized center has started. Design A multicenter, observational, retrospective and prospective cohort study, aimed at obtaining a more detailed picture of the situation of patients not followed by a specialized center and of the natural history of the disease once the pathway at the specialized center has started.6,000 of the incident patients (defined as those who had their first visit during the 6 months preceding enrollment in the registry), will be invited to take part in a follow-up and expanded data collection study. Patients will be consecutively enrolled by specialists at each individual site.. Eligible patients who agree to take part in the study by signing an informed consent form will be assessed clinically and through a direct interview with a structured questionnaire organized in several ad hoc sections. Objectives: The aim of the study is: analyze episodic and chronic migraine in Italy from an epidemiological point of view, especially in terms of prevalence of the two forms of migraine and their endophenotypes in different population subgroups; 2. characterize the demographic distribution and clinical characteristics of patients (including the definition of