Self-care, adherence and uncertainty: biomedical treatments and patient´s experience regarding chronic migraine pain

DEL MONACO ROMINA

Salud Colectiva

Universidad Nacional de Lanús

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2013 p. 65 - 78

1669-2381

Based in the social sciences, this text explores and analyzes the particularities of migraine treatments using a relational approach, articulating the statements of professionals with the experiences and practices of patients in health services and their everyday care trajectories to manage pain. This qualitative research study utilized semi-structured interviews with neurologists and patients in a public hospital in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. A number of processes were observed by which biomedicine assigns part of the responsibility for the course of the disease to the patient through the logic of self-care. Patients must make changes in their ways of life in order to prevent headaches from appearing. Nevertheless, as the efficacy of these modifications is unclear, daily life is filled with uncertainty and charged with the mandate to follow careguidelines, which are valued not only professionally but also socially.