Disability for Migraines and Headaches. Frequency, duration, and what happens during an attack.

How Social Security evaluates headache disorders

Social Security has no listing for migraine or other primary headache disorders. It has a ruling that tells its decision-makers how to evaluate them, and it compares severe cases to its epilepsy listing. The agency looks at how often the headaches occur despite treatment, how long they last, and what you experience during and after one.

When no listing is met

Most claims are decided on residual functional capacity: what you can still do in a work setting despite your symptoms. Social Security then asks whether any jobs fit those limits. For headaches, the limits that matter are time off task during an attack, days missed each month, and sensitivity to light, noise, and screens.

Evidence that matters

• A headache diary showing date, duration, severity, and what you had to stop doing.
• A diagnosis from a neurologist or other treating doctor, with the examination and history behind it.
• Treatment tried: preventive and rescue medications, injections, and how you responded.
• Emergency room and urgent care visits.
• A description of a typical attack from someone who has seen one.

Ask your doctor to complete the headache form in our free doctor forms. It records your limits in the terms Social Security uses.

Why these claims are denied

• The records mention headaches but never say how often.
• Few treatment visits, or no specialist.
• Normal imaging treated as proof nothing is wrong. Normal scans are expected with migraine.
• No doctor has described time off task or missed days.

Describe the attack, not only the pain

Tell your doctor what happens: whether you must lie down in a dark room, whether you vomit, how long before you can function again, and how you feel the next day. Those details belong in the chart, because the judge reads the chart.

If you are 50 or older

Under Social Security’s grid rules, a person limited to sedentary work at 50, or light work at 55, may be found disabled depending on education and past work.

Next steps

If you have been denied, you have 60 days to appeal. See what to do after a denial in Arizona, SSDI in Arizona, and SSI in Arizona. There is no fee unless benefits are awarded.

J Disability Law Firm, PLLC · Joseph J. Duerst, Attorney · 18444 N. 25th Ave, Suite 420, Phoenix, AZ 85023 · (602) 607-0000. This page is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different. Past results do not predict the outcome of your case.