Objective: Stress and anxiety are the most frequent triggers of headaches. Personality traits and coping strategies can affect the human stress response. Some studies demonstrated that certain personality traits may predispose to headaches and headache patients have less effective and more passive coping strategies. The present study aimed to examine coping strategies and personality types in women with migraine and tension type headache (TTH).
Methods: Participants were composed of 45 patients with migraine, 45 patients with TTH, and 42 healthy controls. Visual analogue scale (VAS), The COPE scale, Eysenck personality questionnaire Revised/Abbreviated Form (EPQR-A), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were administered to the participants.
Results: We found that patients with migraine and tension-type headache had higher levels of anxiety and depression than those of individuals without headache. Also, these patients had higher neuroticism scores than that of control subjects. Migraine patients scored lower for the use of instrumental social support subscale and higher for the religious coping subscale as determined by the COPE. Subjects with tension-type headaches showed lower on the active copingsubscale.
Conclusion: This study shows that patients with migraine and TTH had maladaptive and ineffective coping responses, and more neurotic personality features, when compared with healthy subjects. These factors may playa significant role in the development of headaches and their severity.
Key words: stress, headache, coping, personality traits
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