No, migraine is not just a headache that lasts for the duration of an attack, nor is it a female illness, even if there are about three women with migraines for every man (in fact, in childhood, there are even as many boys as girls suffer from migraines and it is only later, at puberty, that the gap widens). Ask Alain Souchon who, in a biography published in 2024 (Life is theater and memories, published by Editions de l'Archipel) revealed his long experience as a migraine sufferer, which he has had since childhood.
Migraine, an ordeal for those affected
This year, the singer will be the special guest of the 5e French-speaking migraine summit proposed by the association “The Voice of Migraine Sufferers” » which will be held in a digital 100% format on the association's YouTube channel.
This live meeting will take place on Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 4 p.m. and various topics will be discussed by the doctors present during this meeting: impact of migraine pain on cognitive functions (concentration, reasoning, memory, attention, etc.), notion of migraine threshold and also role of hormones in triggering attacks.
A unique opportunity, whether you are directly affected or not, to become aware of the ordeal experienced by many patients who, for the most affected and as revealed by a study carried out by the association on a thousand patients, are very frequently (90%) impacted in their social life by this complex and multifactorial condition.
Read alsoMigraines: Patients recount their daily struggles in a first-ever study
11 million people affected in France
For the record, the number of people affected by migraine in France is estimated at around 11 million (12 % adults, 5 to 10 % children), a figure which includes both those who only occasionally experience a moderate attack and those who are affected by it on a daily basis, often severely.
It is only this group of patients, estimated at around 50,000 people in France, who are not benefiting from conventional treatments that are ineffective at home, but from more recently developed drugs.
These drugs, which have been on the market for around seven years and are specific to migraines because they act on a protein called CGRP (which we now know is involved in triggering them), are still not reimbursed in France, which constitutes a significant source of inequality of access, the cost of treatment being around 250 euros per month.
The fact remains that salvation does not lie solely in the pharmacological approach, but also in lifestyle, sleep, and diet, even if there is no miracle food or trigger, and here again susceptibilities remain totally individual.
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