Human psyche and headache: tension-type headache

Abstract

The role of psychological factors related to headache, particularly tension-type headache (TTH), has long been a focus of investigation. The subject at issue is a complex one, with some aspects that are still being debated by experts. In episodic TTH, it is possible to hypothesise that headache is not only a "primary" headache that causes gratuitous pain to sufferers. In fact, it might represent an improper mode of communicating the sufferers' intimate discomfort, caused by an inadequate relationship between their personality profiles and events in their lives. As in migraine, in TTH, too, evidence has been found of comorbidity between headache and psychiatric disorders, including depression and anxiety disorder. Such evidence will have to be confirmed by further studies on the general population. As regards behaviour and personality traits, subjects with TTH had significantly higher scores than healthy controls on measures of automatic thoughts and alexithymia, and lower scores on assertiveness. Patients with chronic TTH had higher automatic thoughts scores than patients with episodic TTH. These findings suggest that people with TTH may have difficulty in expressing their emotions. Finally, psychological factors and emotional disturbances have been indicated as risk factors for TTH. Indeed, stress and mental tension are the most common factors that cause TTH.

Prevalence of parafunctional habits and temporomandibular dysfunction symptoms in patients attending a tertiary headache clinic

“…Although the lines of study may differ, there seems to be agreement that these conditions overlap with anxiety, depression, maladaptive coping, inability to communicate with others and deal with life events, and common pathophysiological origins 7,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] . The results from the present study further add to the discussion on the very high prevalence of signs and symptoms of TMD among primary headache patients.…”

Tension-type Headache and Systemic Medical Disorders

“…The role of psychological factors and psychiatric diseases in headache, particularly TTH, long has been a focus of investigation [24]. The point is complex, with some aspects that still are being debated.…”

Cognitive-constructivist Approach in Medical Settings: The Use of Personal Meaning Questionnaire for Neurological Patients’ Personality Investigation

“…Similarly to MS, also headache appears to be closely correlated with depressive symptoms, particularly when disease becomes chronic causing feelings of inadequacy, negative thinking, diminished interest for environment and relationships, affecting patients’ quality of life – QoL (Blomkvist et al, 2002; Manack et al, 2011). In the last decade, however, it has been suggested that depressive and anxious features, as well as other psychological aspects, may be a distinctive characteristic of this population of patients, instead of a consequence of experimenting chronic pain (Mongini et al, 2000; Torelli et al, 2008; Berry and Drummond, 2014; Bottiroli et al, 2016; Muñoz et al, 2016). In ALS population, by contrast, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) seems to be an uncommon result, with a prevalence similar to that of the adult general population (Norris et al, 2010).…”