Migraine Visual Guide Library

20 printable one-page charts that catalogue how VA migraine claims work: the four rating levels under Diagnostic Code 8100, what the Court has said a prostrating attack means and why there is no universal hour requirement, why severe economic inadaptability does not require total unemployability, how to keep a headache log and what other evidence matters, the direct and secondary pathways including PTSD, sleep apnea, tinnitus and TBI, what happens at the examination, and research on the symptoms, evidence, and denial reasons that appear in published Board decisions.

20 visual guides. 4 research charts refresh from RateMyVSO's analysis of 1.9M+ published BVA decisions; each chart prints its own denominator and, where the source is hand-built, its own data date. The other 16 state the rating criteria and the case law, and change only when those do.

How to use this library

Every guide is a single tall image sized for printing or saving to your phone. Select any card to open the full-resolution image, or use the download link under it. The rating and evidence charts summarize the published criteria and the case law; the research charts report what RateMyVSO measured in published Board decisions, with the denominator printed on the chart itself.

These charts catalogue the published rating criteria and what appears in published Board decisions. Service connection and rating are kept separate throughout: whether a migraine is connected to service is a different question from what percentage it earns. The research charts count how often something appeared in decision text, which is not symptom prevalence, not a checklist of what to report, and not a prediction about any individual claim. The private-opinion comparison is observational and not a causal estimate. These charts are not legal or medical advice. For the full written guidance behind them, start with the migraine claims guide.

Common Questions

Can I download, print, and share these guides?
Yes. Every guide has a free full-resolution PNG download, sized for printing on letter paper or reading on a phone. Share them freely; please keep the footer attribution intact so readers can find the underlying data.
How current are the research numbers?
The research charts are regenerated every week from the same data files that power this site's live migraine statistics. Each chart prints the generation date of its own data sources in the footer, so you always know exactly when its numbers were produced.
Do these charts predict my claim?
No. They report what happened in published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions, which are appeals, not initial claims, and are described with their exact sample on each chart. An observed grant share is a description of past decided cases, never a probability for any individual claim.

Related Tools and Guides

Migraine Claims Guide
The written guidance behind these charts, from service connection through the rating levels.
DC 8100 Migraine
The diagnostic code page, with live Board outcome data.
Migraines Secondary to PTSD
The most common secondary pathway for migraine claims.
BVA Decision Search
Search the published Board decisions these research charts are built from.
Educational use only. These visual guides catalogue published VA rules and observed outcomes in published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions. They are not legal or medical advice, do not predict any individual claim, and are not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sample sizes and data dates are printed on each chart.