The lived experience of chronic headache: a systematic review and synthesis of the qualitative literature.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To systematically review the qualitative literature of the lived experience of people with a chronic headache disorder.

Background

Chronic headaches affect 3%-4% of the population. The most common chronic headache disorders are chronic migraine, chronic tension-type headache and medication overuse headache. We present a systematic review and meta-ethnographic synthesis of the lived experience of people with chronic headache.

Methods

We searched seven electronic databases, hand-searched nine journals and used a modified Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist to appraise study quality. Following thematic analysis we synthesised the data using a meta-ethnographic approach.

Results

We identified 3586 unique citations; full texts were examined for 8

SUBMITTER: Nichols VP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5778309 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature