Identifying and Explaining the Components, Themes, and Dimensions of Perceptions and Lived Experiences among Patients with Migraine: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to identify and explain the components, themes, and dimensions of the perceptions and lived experiences of patients with migraine.

Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological approach. Participants were patients with migraine who referred to Mehraram Clinic in Tehran, Iran. They were selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and continued until data saturation was achieved. The interviews focused on patients’ experiences of migraine attacks, bodily perceptions, sensory triggers, emotional reactions, cognitive difficulties, daily functioning, social and family consequences, and coping strategies. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis with a phenomenological orientation. Trustworthiness was ensured through credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability, member checking, repeated review of transcripts, and documentation of analytic decisions.

Results: Analysis of the interviews led to the extraction of 312 initial codes. After repeated review and merging of similar codes, 84 final codes were organized into 19 subthemes and 6 main themes. The main themes were: painful and unpredictable body, sensory sensitivity and vulnerability to stimuli, psychological disturbance and emotional exhaustion, impaired cognitive functioning and daily performance, family, social, and occupational consequences of the disease, and coping strategies, adaptation, and reconstruction of the relationship with illness. The findings showed that migraine was experienced as a multidimensional condition that disrupts bodily trust, emotional stability, cognitive clarity, social participation, role functioning, and everyday planning.

Conclusion: Migraine is not experienced merely as recurrent headache, but as a complex lived condition that affects the patient’s body, emotions, cognition, relationships, responsibilities, and identity. A patient-centered understanding of migraine can help clinicians move beyond symptom counting and design more sensitive assessment and psychological intervention strategies.