Migraine

Paula Kamen's name may or may not be familiar to you. She's one of the regular contributers to the NY Times' new Migraine blog. I had read a few good reviews of her book, and some that said her book is better than some of her Migraine pieces on the NYT blog, so I checked the book out from my library.

Let me just say - wow.

The book is her memoir of her long fight with chronic daily headache, but it goes beyond a simple memoir. She did a lot of research to write the book, so it is very informative as well as a touching personal story. She is very honest - brutally honest at times - about the various treatments she has tried. Like many of us on this website, she is a complicated case, not easy treated with medications, supplements or a variety of complementary therapies.

Paula Kamen's academic background is in women's issues and feminism, so she devotes a significant amount of her book to a discussion of chronic pain as a women's issue, and historical reasons for the substandard treatment many women receive for their pain. I related to so much of her book. I loved it so much that I think I will be buying a copy for myself so I can mark it up.

She has an extensive bibliography at the back of her book, as well as a list of online resources. She references the old about.com website (her book was published in 2005) and even thanks Teri in her acknowledgments.

I *highly* recommend this book. While she focuses on her particular diagnosis - CDH - much of what she says is relevant to even episodic Migraine sufferers. (As a CDH sufferer myself this book really resonated with me.)

Amazon.com link to this book is HERE.

It IS a good book in many ways. Please though, don't rely on medical facts in it until you check them. This is what disappointed me with that book. I found several medical errors in the first 17 pages...

• She talks about no history of Migraine in her family. Says she later found out about cousins and aunts, but she's "not even sure they count."
  
• She defines CHD as "a headache that occurs at least 15 days a year, four hours a day." It's 15 days a MONTH.
  
• She says triptans "target receptors of the neurotransmitter serotonin to PREVENT dilation..." Triptans cannot PREVENT vasodilation. They're used to reverse it.

Please don't get me wrong -- it's a GREAT personal experience book, but there are errors in it. So, please read it for her experience, not necessarily info about head pain and / or treatments.

Thanks for clarifying that, Teri. I meant to mention that in my original post but forgot, since I noticed it more in the beginning than the end. Whoops.

I will say that the most valuable thing I took from it was her personal experience and her explanation of the history of psychology and how it's impacted treatment of chronic pain.

I will always trust information I find here over anything else I read! Hopefully others can look past some of her incorrect facts and enjoy the book.

That's cool, MJ. I agree with you on the book. That those medical errors made it through the editing process and into the book is, IMO, a true shame. Several people have asked me to review the book, but I'm hesitant to do so because it contains so many errors. I'm not sure how it would be received if I said something along the lines of "Read it for a great personal experience book, but do NOT read it for any reliable medical info." Sigh.

Thanks for the review, MJ, and Teri for the clarifications. Actually I think a guideline like -

quote:

Read it for a great personal experience book, but do NOT read it for any reliable medical info

is very useful, tho probably not what they want to put on a book-jacket!

I thought Paula Kamen's name looked familiar when I first saw it on the NYT - I wonder if that's from her women's studies writing? I was a women's studies joint major in college. I'm very interested in what she has to say about chronic pain as a women's issue. I certainly see migraine and chronic pain, as well as chronic fatigue, getting dismissed as women's issues!

Thanks again, MJ, for taking the time to do the review!

- Megs

Megs, these are the other books she's written, HERE. Maybe one of those titles rings a bell?

I would love to hear what you think of her book if you have the time to read it.

(BTW I have a pile of headache/migraine books from the library that I'm working my way through, so I'll post reviews as I finish them.)

Great conversation, and I hate to be picky, but to discuss books she (or anyone else) has written about topics other than Migraine and/or headaches, would you pretty please start a new thread in the off-topic folder?

Just trying to keep on-topic for those who aren't feeling well.

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by MaxJerz:
Megs, these are the other books she's written, HERE. Maybe one of those titles rings a bell?

I would love to hear what you think of her book if you have the time to read it.

(BTW I have a pile of headache/migraine books from the library that I'm working my way through, so I'll post reviews as I finish them.)