MIDAS Calculator: Score Your Migraine Disability

The MIDAS (Migraine Disability Assessment) is a short questionnaire that counts how many days migraine has taken from you over the last 3 months, at work or school, at home and in your social life. Doctors use it to decide how aggressive treatment should be, and to see whether treatment is working. Fill it in below and you’ll get your score, your grade and what to do with it.

How the MIDAS works

The MIDAS has 5 scored questions. Each one asks for a number of days in the last 3 months:

• Days you missed work or school
• Days your work or school productivity was cut in half or more
• Days you didn’t do household work
• Days your household productivity was cut in half or more
• Days you missed family, social or leisure activities

Your score is those 5 numbers added together. Two extra questions (A and B) ask how many headache days you had and how bad the pain was on average. They aren’t part of the score, but they give your doctor useful context, so the calculator includes them.

The questionnaire was developed by Walter Stewart, Richard Lipton and colleagues and tested for reliability and validity in people with migraine (Stewart et al., 2001).

MIDAS scoring: what your grade means

MIDAS score	Grade	Disability
0 to 5	Grade I	Little or no disability
6 to 10	Grade II	Mild disability
11 to 20	Grade III	Moderate disability
21 or more	Grade IV	Severe disability

A grade III or IV means migraine is taking a meaningful share of your life. That’s exactly the kind of disability the 2026 AAN and American Headache Society prevention guideline lists as a reason to offer preventive treatment, alongside having 4 or more migraine days a month.

Using MIDAS to track treatment

Because the MIDAS covers 3 months, it works best as a check-in every 3 months or so, especially after you start or change a treatment. The American Headache Society’s consensus statements (2019, updated 2021) use these drops when deciding whether to keep going with a CGRP preventive, and they make a reasonable yardstick for any preventive:

• A drop of 5 points or more, if your score started between 11 and 20
• A drop of 30% or more, if your score started above 20

The calculator saves your score on this device (never on our servers), so next time it can tell you how much you’ve changed. You can also plug your before and after scores into the Is my preventive working? calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What is a normal MIDAS score?

A score of 0 to 5 (grade I) means little or no disability from headache. Many people with migraine score higher than that, and a score of 11 or more (grade III or IV) means migraine is getting in the way enough that prevention is worth discussing.

Is a MIDAS score of 21 bad?

A score of 21 or more is grade IV, the severe disability band. It means you lost or half-lost around three weeks of days to headache over 3 months. It’s a strong reason to ask your doctor about preventive treatment and, if your current plan isn’t working, a headache specialist.

Do I count a day twice if I missed work and also missed a social event?

Yes. Each question is counted on its own, except for the two productivity questions, which tell you not to recount days you already counted as fully missed.

I don’t work or go to school. How do I answer?

Put 0 for the first two questions. Your score then comes from home and social days only, so it may run a little lower than it would for someone who works. Your doctor will take that into account.

How often should I take the MIDAS?

Every 3 months is a good rhythm, and about 3 months after starting or changing a treatment. The questionnaire looks back 3 months, so taking it more often mostly re-counts the same days.

Is the MIDAS the same as the HIT-6?

No. The MIDAS counts days lost over 3 months. The HIT-6 asks how often headaches affect you and looks at the last 4 weeks. They complement each other, and many headache clinics use both.

More free migraine tools

References

1. Stewart WF, Lipton RB, Dowson AJ, Sawyer J. Development and testing of the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) Questionnaire to assess headache-related disability. Neurology. 2001;56(6 Suppl 1):S20-S28. PubMed
2. Potrebic S, Tanveer S, Becker WJ, et al. Pharmacologic treatment for migraine prevention in adults: practice guideline recommendations. Report of the AAN Guidelines Subcommittee and the American Headache Society. Neurology. 2026;107(7):e214881. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000214881
3. Ailani J, Burch RC, Robbins MS; Board of Directors of the American Headache Society. The American Headache Society Consensus Statement: Update on integrating new migraine treatments into clinical practice. Headache. 2021;61(7):1021-1039. PubMed
4. American Headache Society. The American Headache Society position statement on integrating new migraine treatments into clinical practice. Headache. 2019;59(1):1-18. PubMed

This tool is for education and to help you talk with your doctor. It doesn’t diagnose anything and isn’t medical advice. Your answers stay in your browser and are never sent to Cerebral Torque.