Table 3.

Examples of narratives of patients with NDPH

Theme: self-medication—minimising pill intake
Common meaning groups	Narratives
8 Ineffective treatment	Persistence of pain: ‘After so many years, they still don’t have a drug to get rid of the pain. I know that I am going to be in pain until I die.’(P10)
9 Trial and error approach to treatment	Trial and error: ‘The neurologist told me that this headache is trial and error, that the treatment that works for one person, might not work for me, so she keeps trying. When I go to a new doctor, he only studies the list of treatments that I have received, and if there is one that I have not tried already, they try with that one.’(P18)
10 Polypharmacology	Multidrug use:‘Considering all the different treatments, these years I have had between 35 and 40 drugs prescribed in total, sleeping pills, pills for depression, muscle relaxants, 19 years are a lot of years’ (P1)
11 Prolonged drug use	For the rest of my life : ‘Am I going to have to take the medication all my life? Am I going to be able to decrease the pills gradually, as I get better? I am going to have to take them my whole life and these are drugs are quite strong.’ P18)
12 Discontinuing treatment	Why continue pharmacological treatment?: ‘If it doesn’t take away my pain, and on top of it all, it makes me feel like vomiting, why should I take medication? I prefer not to take anything.’ (P2), ‘He gave me some pills, which left me feeling almost as if I weren’t myself, as if I wasn’t a person. What I want is to be myself, but without pain, and without having to be drugged up all the time and lying around at home.’(P5)
13 Enduring the pain	Why endure the pain?: ‘I try not to take the treatment and I try to withstand the pain, because I think that one day I will learn to manage the pain and not depend so much on a pill.’ P17)
14 Flexible use of prescribed treatment	Increased flexibility in the medication regimen: ‘It depends on the activity that I have had that day, and if I have pain. If I have a lot of work, I increase the drugs I take because I know that the pain will worsen. If it is a very intense pain, I don’t take anything, and I try to withstand it.’(P1), ‘The medication is always according to my needs, one day I need it, one day I don’t, it depends on how I feel. It’s important to be flexible. I try to minimize the number of pills I take.’ (P3)

Theme: self-medication—minimising pill intake

NDPH, new daily persistent headache.