Many of these are inside or close to the genes that regulate the circulatory system – the vessels that carry blood and lymph through the body.

The results provide further support for the theory that an abnormal function of the blood vessels of the brain could play an important role in migraine attacks.

This is the largest genetic study on migraine to date and it was based on DNA samples of 375,000 European, American and Australian participants (including from Children of the 90s), almost 60,000 of them migraine-sufferers.

The study was conducted by members of the International Headache Genetics Consortium including migraine research groups from Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK and USA.

Migraine is a debilitating disorder affecting around one in seven people worldwide, but it is poorly understood, which makes developing new treatments challenging.

When the researchers looked at the genomic areas pinpointed in the study, they noticed that as many as nine of the genes have been previously associated with some circulatory disease, supporting the importance of blood vessels in migraine attacks.

Speaking about the findings, Dr George McMahon from Children of the 90s who was involved in the research, said:

This study brings use one more step closer to being able to tailor medical advice and treatment for migrane sufferers on an individual basis.