Neurological conditions and seizures
VA rating for migraines, diagnostic code 8100
One undefined word carries diagnostic code 8100. Three of its four criteria are built on prostrating attacks and how often they occur, at 0, 10, 30 and 50 percent, and 38 CFR Part 4 supplies no definition of prostrating and no test for it anywhere in the regulation.
Published 2026-08-21. Last updated 2026-09-12. Written and reviewed under Veteran Health Network's institutional review process.
What each level requires
migraines is rated under diagnostic code 8100, which the schedule calls "Migraine", at 38 CFR 4.124a.
50 percent requires
In plain English
Very frequent, completely prostrating and prolonged attacks that produce severe economic inadaptability. This is the only level that reaches beyond the attacks themselves and asks about their effect on the ability to work.
As written in 38 CFR 4.124a
With very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability
30 percent requires
In plain English
Characteriztic prostrating attacks averaging about one a month over the last several months. The measure is an average across months, not a count in the worst month.
As written in 38 CFR 4.124a
With characteriztic prostrating attacks occurring on an average once a month over last several months
10 percent requires
In plain English
Characteriztic prostrating attacks averaging one every two months over the last several months.
As written in 38 CFR 4.124a
With characteriztic prostrating attacks averaging one in 2 months over last several months
0 percent requires
In plain English
Attacks less frequent than one every two months.
As written in 38 CFR 4.124a
With less frequent attacks
Regulation text reproduced from 38 CFR 4.124a, read on 2026-08-21. Read the section at the eCFR. Part 4 is amended on a rolling schedule, so the date above is the date this text was checked and not the date it was written.
Three levels about attacks, one level about work
Derived from the regulation
Read downward, the first three criteria differ only in frequency. Ten percent is "With characteriztic prostrating attacks averaging one in 2 months over last several months". Thirty percent is "With characteriztic prostrating attacks occurring on an average once a month over last several months". Both are averages taken over several months rather than counts in a bad month.
Fifty percent changes the question. It reads "With very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability", and the last clause, severe economic inadaptability, is about the effect of the attacks on the ability to work. Nothing below 50 percent asks that.
The 0 percent criterion is three words: "With less frequent attacks". Less frequent than one in two months, and still a rating rather than a refusal.
Prostrating is doing the heaviest lifting in the code, and Part 4 does not define it. That is a gap in the regulation, and naming it is more useful than filling it with a definition we invented.
How old this wording is
Derived from the regulation
The migraine criteria are among the oldest continuously unamended criteria in the schedule, which is worth knowing before comparing them against any modern headache classification.
The whole of the Appendix A row for code 8100 is one entry: "Evaluation June 9, 1953."
Under 4.124a the eCFR prints a much longer record, and its length is the point: the section around code 8100 has been amended over and over while the code itself has not. 29 FR 6718, May 22, 1964, as amended at 40 FR 42540, Sept. 15, 1975; 41 FR 11302, Mar. 18, 1976; 43 FR 45362, Oct. 2, 1978; 54 FR 4282, Jan. 30, 1989; 54 FR 49755, Dec. 1, 1989; 55 FR 154, Jan. 3, 1990; 56 FR 51653, Oct. 15, 1991; 57 FR 24364, June 9, 1992; 70 FR 75399, Dec. 20, 2005; 73 FR 54705, Sept. 23, 2008; 73 FR 69554, Nov. 19, 2008; 76 FR 78824, Dec. 20, 2011; 79 FR 2100, Jan. 13, 2014. Read 2026-08-21.
Headaches that are not rated here
Derived from the regulation
Code 8100 covers migraine. Headache from other causes is often rated elsewhere, and the schedule directs some of it away explicitly. Residuals of traumatic brain injury are evaluated under diagnostic code 8045 in the same section, which carries its own scheme.
Where a headache condition has no code of its own, 38 CFR 4.20 permits it to be rated by analogy to a closely related listed condition, and 38 CFR 4.27 sets out how the resulting hyphenated code number is built.
A decision letter showing a hyphenated code ending in 8100 is therefore recording that migraine criteria were applied to something the schedule does not list by name.
Questions
Does the regulation define a prostrating attack?
It does not. The word appears in the criteria for diagnostic code 8100 without a definition anywhere in 38 CFR Part 4.
Is there a level between 30 and 50 percent?
No. Code 8100 prints four evaluations, 0, 10, 30 and 50, and 50 is the highest available under this code.
See every level beside the regulation it comes from
The rating threshold cheatsheet shows all of the levels for migraines in one view, plain English on the left and the regulation itself on the right, in a layout built to print.
It is free and it never says which level anyone meets. It describes what each one requires and leaves the reading to the person whose record it is.
Sources
- 38 CFR 4.124a, Schedule of ratings, neurological conditions and convulsive disorders (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- 38 CFR 4.20, Analogous ratings (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- 38 CFR 4.27, Use of diagnostic code numbers (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- Appendix A to Part 4, Table of Amendments and Effective Dates Since 1946 (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
Accuracy owner Brayden Marley. Part 4 is amended on a rolling schedule, so the retrieval date above is what this page is accurate as of.