The Long and Winding Road in Chronic Migraine

Abstract

This article is based on a research that explored the illness experiences of 16 women with chronic migraine and the healing practices employed in their daily lives. The term “healing practices” refers here to techniques, strategies, and adaptations employed to alleviate or more effectively manage migraine symptoms and episodes. These practices may, in some cases, interact with and influence the use and effectiveness of pharmacological treatments, while in others, they function independently of any medication intake. We analyze, on one side, which meanings are given to these practices and why they are considered to be effective once identified; on the other, how, biomedically speaking, they can reduce the symptom severity and perception by acting on a biochemical and pathophysiological level.