Researchers presented evidence at the International Headache Congress, held from June 27 through June 30 in Boston, MA, that attitudes toward people with migraine headaches are similar to people with epilepsy. Robert E. Shapiro, MD, PhD, professor, neurological sciences, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, carried out the study along with Peter Reiner, VMD, PhD, professor, National Core for Neuroethics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. They asked asked 765 people to rate their attitudes to a hypothetical scenario:
"Jane has a _ attack nearly every week. While attacks have always gone away on their own, afterwards she may need to miss work or family activities for an entire day. Unfortunately, treatments for _ attacks do not work for Jane."
In each vignette, "Jane" suffers from 1 of 4 possible attacks; the blanks were filled with "migraine," "epilepsy," "panic," or "asthma" attacks.
"Each scenario has the same number of attacks, the same level of disability in terms of missing work or family activities, and the same prognosis, meaning that treatments are not going to change the likelihood that this will resolve[.]"
Survey participants completed the Attitudes Toward Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ) after reading the vignettes. The questionnaire asked respondents how comfortable they would be to have "Jane" as a co-worker and to invite her to a dinner party as well as how likely that Jane's career would be affected, her husband would leave her, and she get into legal trouble.
Out of a maximum possible score of 500, "asthma attack" received 250 points, "migraine" received 266 points, "panic attacks" received 267 points, and "epilepsy" received 262 points.
Dr. Shapiro said that the stigma or shunning from epilepsy might originate with a fear of possession, but the stigma of migraine may be from the view that the disorder is a character flaw regarding the ability to manage pain, according to an article published by Medscape (Caution: free membership required to view).
Finally, research-based evidence that individuals with migraines are viewed negatively by others.
Now, if migraineurs only managed to have the disease respected as debilitating as epilepsy, asthma, or panic attacks.
That would be helpful.
