| Theme | Subtheme | Examples of patients’ quotations |
| Disease dimension | 1) Description of pain | - I’ve been seeing it almost every day for a year now and it’s always almost strong enough because it takes the temple or the back of the head. P8-F-15 - It started a year ago, a year and a half ago, at the beginning only my eye and nostril hurt, then my eye, nostril my teeth, but now my eye, nostril, teeth, ear and sometimes this part of my head hurt. P14-M-12 |
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| 2) Medication: I know what to take | - I always take “Tachipirina” because the doctors told me to, and mine too. P7-F-16 - I take the drugs my mother tells me. If it’s strong but not too “OKI”. If it’s very strong “Tachipirina”. P18 M-15 |
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| 3) Drugs: not always work | - If it’s strong I take “Tachipirina” even if it doesn’t do me much, while sometimes I get it when I’m not doing anything. P14-M-12 - We changed a lot of drugs, at first I was taking “Tachipirina”, then “Moment”, “Nurofen”, although sometimes it doesn’t go away. P13-M-13 |
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| 4) Medical Examination | - I’ve had this headache since I was a little girl, in fact since I was little I had to go to the doctor for the headache even if in the end they said it was nothing much, then as time went by it got worse and in the end only this one. P19-F-17 - Then in junior high school it started to get worse but I always managed to do everything normally, it was more attacks that I had, the doctor had said migraine attacks and I started going to an osteopath. Then they made me do tests for diabetes and celiac disease because my mum’s brothers suffer from diabetes and coeliac disease and they started suffering from migraine too. P17-F-18 |
| Illness dimension | 5) It’s a habit | - I thought it was a common headache like everyone else, I didn’t pay much attention to it and even though it hurts every day now I don’t pay much attention to it because it’s a habit now. P8-F-15 - Then another time it was the only time when I woke up it didn’t pass me and I had to stay in the hospital, but now I got used to it. P7-F-16 |
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| 6) “It transforms me, I become intractable” | - If I have a strong headache, it’s very influential because I get sour like an expired yogurt, because I’m really angry, you don’t have to touch me, you don’t have to talk to me, no leave me alone. P1-F-17 - When I have a headache, anything that bothers me becomes unbearable, everything they tell me I react badly, I respond badly because the pain really makes me change. P13-M-13 |
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| 7) Headache makes me angry | - Sometimes, maybe because of the headache I’m more sensitive, maybe when they tell me something that bothers me I get a little angry. P8-F-15 - Sometimes I get a headache and it’s a bad day, or at least when I have a headache and I have people around me who mess up I get angry. P5-F-14 |
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| 8) Understanding of headache: There’s something I’m missing. | - I think I know enough then actually I always think there’s something I’m missing, like all these tests on the cycle or liver. P17-F-18 - I know what I have, but there’s something I’m missing. P18 M-15 |
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| 9) Understanding of headache: I don’t know how to fix it | - I know what I have but I can’t figure out how to fix it. P10-M-14 - Sometimes I live in a situation that I don’t understand much, I feel like I’m going to throw up but I can’t and I don’t know what to do. P22-M-13 |
| Sickness dimension | 10) Family members: parents understand and help | - Mom understands it because sometimes she gets headaches too, daddy tells me to stay there quiet, sometimes when I go to tell him it hurts really badly he tells me he can’t do anything about it, then my brothers help me, they tell me: “try to lie down, try to be quiet”, they give me some advice”. P6-M-12 - [When headache] was really strong, I took the medicine and went to bed. Then my mom usually uses either cold water on my head or gets a little relief from the very strong massage on my forehead and so many times I fall asleep. P13-M-13 |