H,t,rog,n,it, de la douleur migraineuse

We wanted to explore the capacities of patients with pain, particularly migraine headache, to express their suffering. Starting with their description of pain, favored by an open questionnaire and a face-to-face interview commenting the questionnaire, we identified the main criteria used to describe migraine headache: pulsatility, and explored its variations. The questionnaire was used by twenty-five patients attending consultations. The results revealed the very heterogeneous nature of patients' expression of pain, and the divers words used to describe it, going beyond pulsatility. We found that while the quality of the pain is determined by pathophysiological mechanisms underlying migraine headache, it is also affected by the language used to describe it and varies depending on whether the patients use adjectives, metaphors, or verbs to express their suffering.