U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

Cover of Migraine

Migraine

A History

.

Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins University Press; .

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, explain, and treat migraine since the Middle Ages. Touching on classical theories of humoral disturbance and medieval bloodletting, Foxhall also describes early modern herbal remedies, the emergence of neurology, and evolving practices of therapeutic experimentation. Throughout the book, Foxhall persuasively argues that our current knowledge of migraine's neurobiology is founded on a centuries-long social, cultural, and medical history. This history, she demonstrates, continues to profoundly shape our knowledge of this complicated disease, our attitudes toward people who have migraine, and the sometimes drastic measures that we take to address pain. Migraine is an intimate look at how cultural attitudes and therapeutic practices have changed radically in response to medical and pharmaceutical developments. Foxhall draws on a wealth of previously unexamined sources, including medieval manuscripts, early-modern recipe books, professional medical journals, hospital case notes, newspaper advertisements, private diaries, consultation letters, artworks, poetry, and YouTube videos. Deeply researched and beautifully written, this fascinating and accessible study of one of our most common, disabling—and yet often dismissed—disorders will appeal to physicians, historians, scholars in medical humanities, and people living with migraine alike.

Contents

This book was brought to publication with the generous assistance of the Wellcome Trust.

All rights reserved. Published 2019

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Johns Hopkins University Press

2715 North Charles Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363

www.press.jhu.edu

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Foxhall, Katherine, author.

Title: Migraine : a history / Katherine Foxhall.

Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018039557 | ISBN 9781421429489 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 1421429489 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781421429496 (electronic) | ISBN 1421429497 (electronic) | ISBN 9781421429502 (electronic open access) | ISBN 1421429500 (electronic open access)

Subjects: | MESH: Migraine Disorders—history

Classification: LCC RC392 | NLM WL 11.1 | DDC 616.8/4912—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039557

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or ude.uhj.sserp@selaslaiceps.

Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible.

© 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press.

This work is also available in an Open Access edition, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Monographs, or book chapters, which are outputs of Wellcome Trust funding have been made freely available as part of the Wellcome Trust's open access policy

Bookshelf ID: NBK544082PMID: 31318500

Views

Related information

Recent Activity

Your browsing activity is empty.

Activity recording is turned off.

Turn recording back on

See more...