How to recruit migraine patients for clinical trials

How common is migraine?

A 2018 review in Headache by Burch, Rizzoli, and Loder, drawing on the National Health Interview Survey and other federal surveys, found migraine or severe headache in 20.7% of US women and 9.7% of US men (American Headache Society).

Migraine is the extreme case on this list: one of the most common conditions in the country, with only 72 recruiting studies. Competition for patients is low compared with oncology. Competition for sponsors is the opposite. The typical industry funded migraine trial lists 27 US locations, more than any other condition in this series, so each site is expected to deliver a modest number of patients quickly.

How many migraine trials are recruiting in the United States right now?

As of October 6, 2026, ClinicalTrials.gov lists 72 migraine studies with a status of recruiting and at least one location in the United States (ClinicalTrials.gov). Of those, 55 are interventional trials and 17 are observational studies. Industry is the lead sponsor on 30 of them, about 42%. Academic centers, cooperative groups, and government sponsors run the rest.

Interventional migraine trials by phase:

The median interventional trial targets 128 participants in total across all of its sites. The typical industry funded trial lists 27 recruiting locations in the United States, so each site is usually expected to deliver a small slice of that total, and sponsors notice quickly which sites deliver none.

Where are migraine trials concentrated?

Every location on every recruiting study counts here. Together the 72 studies list 1,183 recruiting US locations. These states host the most recruiting studies:

The most frequently listed institutions include FutureSearch Trials of Neurology, True North Neurology, The Neurology Group, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The industry sponsors with the most recruiting migraine trials right now include Pfizer, AbbVie, H. Lundbeck A/S, Kallyope, and Merz Therapeutics GmbH. If your site sits in one of the top states, you are recruiting from the same patient population as several large academic programs at once, and the patients who reach you will mostly come through the physicians who already treat them.

Which physicians manage migraine patients?

• Primary care physicians, who treat most migraine patients. The AAMC counts 126,171 family medicine and general practice physicians (AAMC 2024 via Becker's).
• Neurologists and headache specialists, for chronic and treatment resistant migraine. The AAMC counts 14,949 active neurologists.
• OB/GYNs, who see many women with menstrual migraine.

What decides eligibility in migraine trials?

Migraine protocols usually require a specific number of migraine or headache days per month, documented over a baseline period with a headache diary, plus limits on preventive medications and medication overuse. That is where many patients fail. CNS and neuroscience trials have a 57% screen failure rate according to Tufts CSDD (Tufts CSDD). Tell referring physicians the monthly headache day range in plain numbers, and ask whether the patient already keeps a diary.

Why physician referral matters more than volume

A large patient population does not fill trials on its own. Physicians refer a median of about five patients into clinical trials per year, which is less than 0.2% of their annual patient volume (Getz, Applied Clinical Trials). In Tufts CSDD research, physicians and nurses named lack of access to study information and lack of time as the main reasons they do not refer, and physicians in clinical practice were 2.7 times more likely to refer than physicians in hospital settings (Tufts CSDD via Applied Clinical Trials).

That is the gap a site can close. The physicians who diagnose and manage your study population already know which patients are likely to qualify. They need a short, specific summary of your open study, a named coordinator, and a reason to believe the patient will come back to them.

A practical migraine referral plan for your site

1. Pull the live ClinicalTrials.gov list for your state and note which competing studies are enrolling the same population within driving distance of your site.
2. List the primary care practices, neurologists, and headache clinics within a realistic drive of your site. Community practices come first.
3. Send each physician a one page study summary: the diagnosis, the two or three criteria that decide most eligibility, what the patient will experience, and the coordinator's direct line.
4. Follow up by email and LinkedIn, and call the practices that engage.
5. Report back to the referring physician on every patient, whether or not the patient enrolls.

See how to get physicians to refer patients and the referral letter guide for templates.