Scientists have identified a faulty gene responsible for causing the debilitating headaches associated with migraines.

The finding could offer new hope to sufferers and lead to better treatment for the one in five people who have the neurological disorder.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, along with colleagues in Canada, used DNA from people who experience migraines and their families.

They found that when a gene called Tresk is defective it can trigger pain nerves in the brain causing a severe headache.

The discovery could lead to the production of a new drug that can switch off the pain and consequently greatly improve a sufferer’s quality of life.

Dr Zameel Cader, from the Medical Research Council’s Functional Genomics Unit at the University of Oxford, said: ‘We have now made a major step forward in our understanding of why people suffer with migraine and how in certain cases, your family can literally give you a headache.

‘This finding should help lead to the key player which controls this excitability and will give us a real opportunity to find a new way to fight migraines and improve the quality of life for those suffering.’

Migraines can display different symptoms in different people but most commonly they are a severe, long-lasting headache usually felt as a throbbing pain at the front or on one side of the head.

Some people also experience nausea and sensitivity to light.

The challenge now is to find a drug that can capitalise on that discovery. So it’s likely to be at least 10 years before a new medicine is ready for clinical use.

Hayley Trezel, from south east London, had her first migraine aged 15 and has had nine days off work in the last year alone due to the severity of her symptoms.

She told UK Sky News Online: ‘A dark room is the only way to sleep them off and my longest migraine lasted four days.

‘I sometimes find that a dramatic change in weather can bring one on but they can hit at any time.’

The 25-year-old said the new research sounds promising: ‘I would certainly be extremely happy with a cure. At the moment pain killers dull the pain but sleep is the only way to cure it.’

UK Sky News health correspondent Thomas Moore is also encouraged by the discovery: ‘This is a significant advance because it is the first time that scientists have found a gene with a direct role in migraines.

‘But the challenge now is to find a drug that can capitalise on that discovery. So it’s likely to be at least 10 years before a new medicine is ready for clinical use.’

The World Health Organisation (WHO) rates migraine as a leading cause of disability worldwide and it is estimated to be the most costly neurological disorder in Europe.