Injustice, quality of life, and psychiatric symptoms in people with migraine.

OBJECTIVE

To describe and examine the relationships between perceived injustice, quality of life (QoL), and psychiatric symptoms through a mixed-methods, cross-sectional observational study design in people with migraine.

METHOD: Participants completed a series of online quantitative questionnaires, including the Injustice Experience Questionnaire (IEQ). Then, 10 participants took part in qualitative phenomenological interviews.

RESULTS

One hundred twenty-seven participants were included in the sample. Correlations revealed higher IEQ scores were strongly associated with lower QoL (r = -.676, p < .001). Higher scores on the IEQ were related to higher migraine attack frequency (r = .403, p < .001), migraine pain intensity (r = .352, p < .001), no association with reports of nausea/vomiting (r = .110, p = .220), and higher report of allodynia symptoms (r = .281, p < .001). Participants who reported a migraine with aura in the past year reported higher IEQ scores than people with no aura in the past year (t[125] = -2.34, p = .02). Higher IEQ scores were associated with higher anxiety (r = .447, p < .001) and depression symptom scores (r = .495, p < .001). The phenomenological interviews revealed 4 core themes describing perceived injustice and QoL with migraine: coping, loss, illness burden, and misunderstanding.

CONCLUSION

Higher levels of perceived injustice showed lower levels of QoL, was associated with higher headache frequency attack severity, and rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Participants described their QoL similarly, regardless of reported high or low levels of perceived injustice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).