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Migraine: A History

Katherine Foxhall

3.54 · Rating details · 28 ratings · 7 reviews

For centuries, people have talked of a powerful bodily disorder called migraine, which currently affects about a billion people around the world. Yet until now, the rich history of this condition has barely been told.

In Migraine, award-winning historian Katherine Foxhall reveals the ideas and methods that ordinary people and medical professionals have used to describe, exp ...more

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Paperback, 292 pages

Published June 18th 2019 by Johns Hopkins University Press

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Average rating 3.54 ·

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· 28 ratings · 7 reviews

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Aug 22, 2019 Tucker (TuckerTheReader) marked it as other

Shelves: finished-copies-physical, nonfiction

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Jul 09, 2019 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: migraine, health

If you want a very in-depth look at how migraines have been portrayed in the medical literature and case reports dating from ancient times to the present, this book is for you. I got a bit bogged down sometimes with so much detail, but I found the sections on more recent history very interesting.

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Aug 01, 2019 Jane rated it it was amazing

I was asked to review this text book by the Nursing Times Journal

What was it like?

The cover intrigued me, I always felt it was black when a migraine came on or maybe it was a darkened room. I found this a topic that is talked about a lot, many people suffer from this, but I had not come across such a comprehensive and concise book written about this. The artwork on page 87 sums it up perfectly. This book explores so many theories from Wolff in the late 40s describing this as an inability to adap I was asked to review this text book by the Nursing Times Journal

What was it like?

The cover intrigued me, I always felt it was black when a migraine came on or maybe it was a darkened room. I found this a topic that is talked about a lot, many people suffer from this, but I had not come across such a comprehensive and concise book written about this. The artwork on page 87 sums it up perfectly. This book explores so many theories from Wolff in the late 40s describing this as an inability to adapt to situations in life which I would say was stress and emotions, today, to the 1880s where people who were cultured suffered from neurasthenia yet the poorer classes suffered from epilepsy? But that was how people thought and thank fully we in society have moved on.

I found the various sections fascinating and how theorists and culture have changed and moved on- it is a book to pick up and read certain sections at a time.

The highlights:

It is a well set out book which although some readers may find a large read like this daunting the author writes well and it is easy to read. I encourage readers to read this in sections it is fascinating.

I particularly like the artwork within the book as I could identify with this as now an occasional migraine sufferer.

Strengths & weaknesses:

The author explores this subject in depth and as predicted gender very much comes into the history as does culture through the ages and the fact until neurology came into being a lot of this was just theory because it was such a difficult subject to unravel and as the author(social and medical historian) states we have come a long way and research and treatment can be bettered.
The notes from each chapter are useful for reference and further reading and this has been well researched with pages of references showing just how much this author researched this subject.

Who should read it?

This should be on the student nurse and doctor reading list and any clinician caring for patients as this is important to understand migraines and the journey along the way – we are still learning.

...more

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Mar 11, 2020 M rated it really liked it

I listened to the Audible version narrated by Robin J. Sitten, whose reading I enjoyed. Before buying the audiobook, I suggest you listen to the sample, because the narrator reads this more like a science textbook—which I prefer when I must pay attention to the reading. Unlike Audible hard science books, this book has no references or illustrations that can be printed out prior to reading. I’m up on physiology and have read several medically-oriented books about migraine.

Migraine is a prevalent ...more

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Sep 14, 2019 Emily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, health, medical-history, migraine, pain, chronic-illness, feminist

I've read a number of medical histories and this was the most readable. As a migraine sufferer, I was the most engaged with this, but some of the histories I've read in the past have been difficult going. Despite this, the average migraine sufferer likely isn't going to pick up Foxhall's book, but for the curious reader it holds many wonders about an illness known in some ways for multiple millennia. Katherine Foxhall uses a feminist approach to give voice and witness to the experience of migrai ...more

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Apr 10, 2020 James rated it really liked it

Foxhall’s ‘Migraine’ is a comprehensive and insightful history of migraine and it’s treatment. It’s also not the most enjoyable read. The separate chapters don’t really build a sense of momentum or through line in the study of migraine.

This an impressive book, but if less pop science and more expanded academic paper. Thoughtful, worth reading, but you will have to push through some.

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