Migraines. Say the word in a group of people who don't have Migraine disease, and... Well, if you're here reading this, you probably know what happens all too often... sighs, eye rolling, people making comments that show them to be totally clueless.
 

At the 52nd annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society (June, 2010), results of a study about Migraine and stigma were presented.

The researchers explained the study background:

"Stigma is an established construct in the social sciences that describes an attribute, trait or disorder that is deeply discrediting and may elicit some form of community sanction. Research has shown many diseases, like HIV, mental illness, and cancer, can be highly stigmatizing, resulting in depression, anxiety, decreased quality of life, and disruption of social relationships. But stigma attaches to disease to varying degrees. To date, there has been no research on stigma in people with Migraine. This study will look at stigma in both chronic and episodic Migraine patients, in order to understand how stigma attaches to Migraine. This effort will ultimately aid in the development of public health strategies to combat the stigmatizing effects of Migraine."

Their study objective was:

"To characterize stigma in patients with chronic and episodic Migraines."

This was an interesting study on a topic that's very important to us. You can read more in my article, Migraine Burden Worsened by Stigma.

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated July 21, 2010