BackgroundErenumab has demonstrated effectiveness for prevention of migraine attacks, but the treatment is costly, and a considerable proportion of patients do not respond to it. The Registry for Migraine study (REFORM) was initiated to discover biomarkers that can predict response to erenumab in patients with migraine. The specific objective was to investigate differences in erenumab efficacy based on clinical information, blood-based biomarkers, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and response to intravenous infusion of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). In this first report of the REFORM study, we provide a comprehensive description of the study methodology, and present the baseline characteristics of the study population.MethodsThe REFORM study was a single-center, prospective, longitudinal cohort study in adults with migraine who were scheduled to receive preventive treatment with erenumab as part of a separate, open-label, single-arm phase IV trial. The study included four periods: a 2-week screening period (Weeks -6 to -5), 4-week baseline period (Week -4 to Day 1), 24-week treatment period (Day 1 to Week 24), and a 24-week follow-up period without treatment (Week 25 to Week 48). Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded using a semi-structured interview, whilst outcome data were obtained using a headache diary, patient-reported outcomes, blood sampling, brain MRI, and responsiveness to intravenous infusion of CGRP.ResultsThe study enrolled 751 participants, with a mean age ± SD of 43.8 ± 12.2 years, of which 88.8% (n= 667) were female. At enrollment, 64.7% (n= 486) were diagnosed with chronic migraine, and 30.2% (n= 227) had history of aura. The mean monthly migraine days (MMDs) was 14.5 ± 7.0. Concomitant preventive medications were used by 48.5% (n= 364) of the participants, and 39.9% (n= 300) had failed ≥ 4 preventive medications.ConclusionThe REFORM study enrolled a population with a high migraine burden and frequent use of concomitant medications. The baseline characteristics were representative of patients with migraine in specialized headache clinics. Future publications will report the results of the investigations presented in this article.Trial registrationThe study and sub-studies were registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04592952; NCT04603976; and NCT04674020).Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s10194-023-01604-2.