Jean Schoenen, winner of one of the Wernaers Awards for Popularization of Science 2021

Neurologist and headache specialist, Jean Schoenen has just been awarded one of the Wernaers 2021 Prizes for scientific popularization for his e-book project #MIGRAINE-TOO News and Fake news about an invisible disease. This book, a synthesis of his scientific career of nearly 40 years, aims to inform migraine sufferers in an understandable way of the facts and false rumors about migraines in order to help them manage the disease in the best possible way and with full knowledge throughout their lives.

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igraine is multiple and complex in its clinical expression as well as in its causes and treatments. This complexity can give the illusion that it is a disease without characteristics or precise causes, without effective treatments and without real impact on life. Add to this the fact that it is not visible, neither on a clinical examination nor on a brain scan, and you will understand why migraine is considered by some as a "non-disease" and why false information or "fake news" about it abound, but also why migraine sufferers often remain stigmatized in society.

With more than forty years of experience in the field, Jean Schoenen, neurologist and professor emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine of ULiège, has devoted a good part of his academic career to treating migraineurs and at the same time to conducting clinical and laboratory research aimed at understanding the etiopathogeny of their disease and developing more effective treatments. This experience, he wished to address in an e-book - #MIGRAINE-TOO News and Fake news on an invisible disease - which aims to separate the true from the false concerning this ailment that affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. In this digital book I will try to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the information that is circulating about migraine, its causes and treatments, based on 40 years of experience in the clinical management of migraine patients and scientific studies by our research group and researchers elsewhere," explains Jean Schoenen. In this way, I hope to show migraine sufferers that their migraine is not a fatality, but a neurological disease in which the progress of research over the last few decades has opened the way to increasingly effective treatments. "To do this, the neurologist will illustrate his remarks with scientific data, sometimes specialized, because he believes that the patient will understand them if they are presented clearly and that it is in his interest to know them so that he can form his own opinion with full knowledge of the facts. This e-book could therefore also be useful for caregivers of migraine patients.

"I also hope to convince non-migraine sufferers in all social strata that this is a disabling disease, which can undermine a life, a couple or a career, and which deserves the interest of relatives, employers, academics and policy makers. "It is this book that has just been awarded the Wernaers Prize for the Popularization of Science 2021. Created on the initiative of the late Mr. Gustave Christin WERNAERS, the WERNAERS International Fund for Research and Dissemination of Knowledge was established with the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS to support actions for the promotion of research and the dissemination of scientific knowledge.