Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program

Robert Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurological sciences

(JULY 20, 2022) Robert Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurological sciences, who has a particular specialty and interest in headache disorders and advocacy for these conditions, joined Dawn C. Buse, Ph.D., clinical professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a board member of the American Headache Society, and a licensed psychologist; and Katie MacDonald, director of operations for Miles for Migraine and director of federal policy for the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, for a conversation about the impact of migraine on quality of life, as well as the pain of stigma and how advocacy can reduce stigma, in an editorial collaboration between Medscape and the American Headache Society. A chronic, disabling, and unpredictable condition, migraine is the second most disabling disease on the planet, according to a World Health Organization Global Burden of Disease Study.

“There’s been increasing attention on stigma toward migraine, with some very striking research results about its pervasiveness and its impacts,” Shapiro says. “Stigma diminishes quality of life more than the frequency of headaches ... We see that the social context of this disease is perhaps even more impactful, more burdensome, than actually experiencing the headache events in some contexts. This is really a dramatic, important, and underappreciated aspect of this disease.”