Rech Soins Infirm. 2001 Jun; (65): 83-92.

[Help-seeking behavior of women with migraines]

Bourgault P, Gratton F.

Women who suffer from migraine headaches live in fear of the next crushing attack. Though many in number, only a few of them benefit from adequate care, thus suffering a diminishing quality of life as well. It is therefore important to understand how these women proceed to get help. Based on the Theory of Care Seeking, the purpose of this study was to describe and understand the way five adult women between the age of 25 and 45, who have had migraine for more than five years, go about seeking help. The simultaneous paradigm was used as a framework. The method used was Grounded Theory. What emerged was a process of seeking help of which the central idea is "seeking an adequate method to stop the headache". This phenomenon is preceded by the history of the illness, including its beginning, its causes and the symptoms. Seeking help takes place in a context made up of the seeker's personal characteristics and her human and social environment. Strategies used are the traditional medical route, alternative medicine, learning about the illness and insight. The person uses one or several strategies causing physical and social repercusions; searching for help may be influenced by prejudice and ignorance. The process is not all linear; the constant which appears is the history of the illness as well as the desire to see an end to the headache. A second review of the literature permitted a discussion of the originality of the identified process of seeking help.