From Helen Simmons
To say that because migraine is the result of mis-sensing the world, this makes the pain unreal, is crass (21 June, p 36). As a migraine sufferer married to a migraine sufferer, I can tell you that whatever the cause of migraine, the result is pain, which is very real. The pain is, for me, worse than childbirth and worse than the breaking of a bone.
Migraine sufferers are already often stigmatised. I can see this being used as another weapon by the medical community to deny the seriousness of the pain, rather than as a way to understand and find treatments for this debilitating condition.
Peter Goadsby is misreading migraine when he refers to other symptoms people experience during an attack, such as too-bright lights. What he is missing is that for some people the bright lights are what trigger the attack, rather than the migraine coming first and the lights then appearing to be too bright.
Incidentally, the only thing that has brought real long-term relief for me is a daily magnesium supplement, which has significantly reduced the frequency, duration and pain of the migraine.
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Clare Wilson writes:
• While the article suggested that the pain of migraine might not be what it seems, the author repeatedly stated that attacks feel extremely painful. The word “unreal” was not used to describe them – the words “torture”, “agony”, and “worse than childbirth” were.
Wendling, Norfolk, UK
