Background

Migraine is a comprehensive endemic disease who is affecting both women and men, but with higher prevalence among women because of hormonal factors. Risk factors for the disease are female gender, hereditariness, depression and socio-economic factors. Migraine can be triggered by factors like stress, menstruation, irregular routines for sleep and unbalanced meals and diet. Migraine is a condition that causes a big suffering for the affected individuals.

Aim

The aim of this study was to describe individuals' experiences of how migraine is affecting the daily life, out of the aspects like working life, family life and social life.

Method

A literature overview was maintained, and eight qualitative studies and two quantitative studies between the years 2003- 2014 were analyzed.

Results

The analysis of the articles lead to one main theme; "Guilt, compensating and restrictions" and seven subthemes "Not being able to perform their best", "Met with incomprehension", "Not being able to take care of home and children", "Not enough", "Avoiding activities", "Always be prepared" and "Living with restrictions".

Conclusion

Migraine is affecting the daily life among these individuals in a great extent. The disease makes it hard to perform well at work. The individuals where met with incomprehension which made them feel questioned. It was though for the individuals to take care of their home and family. The restricted life that they had and not being able to participate in activities caused isolation. All of this caused feelings of guilt.