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Do Certain Headache Syndromes Occur in “Pain‐Prone” Patients?
Author(s) -
Ziegler Dewey K.,
Kodanaz Altan,
Hassanein Ruth S.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
headache: the journal of head and face pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.14
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1526-4610
pISSN - 0017-8748
DOI - 10.1111/j.1526-4610.1985.hed2502090.x
Subject(s) - fainting , headaches , medicine , weakness , tension headache , physical therapy , feeling , psychology , anesthesia , psychiatry , surgery , social psychology
SYNOPSIS To clarify the actual components of headache syndromes and their possible association with other types of pain and psychological traits, 177 patients subject to severe intermittent headaches were studied. Data used were derived from (a) a de tailed headache questionnaire, (b) a second questionnaire concerning the occurrence of other pain and of feelings of good or ill health, (c) the Cornell Medical Index. A stepwise regression analysis was run for each headache characteristic using data from the pain questionnaire and the Cornell Medical Index as independent variables. Interesting associations of variables were (1) increased frequency of headache with male sex and increased duration of headache with female, (2) inability to carry on work load during headache, headache preceded by spots before the eyes, weakness of arm or leg preceding headache were all positively associated with history of fainting. Neither vomiting with headache, nor unilaterality of pain was associated with any other pain variables. Also of note was the fact that there was no evidence by testing of increased psychological disturbance in patients with back pain. The results suggest that the “tension headache‐neurosis” concept is dubious, that autonomic instability as evidenced by fainting is indeed important in some headache syndromes, and that new headache syndromes need to be defined.