Personality characteristics in migraine and tension headache in Gorgan, Iran (2007-08)

Headache is one the most common compliant of patients and has different causes and the migraine and tension headaches are common. Personality is characteristics forming an individual distinctive manner. This study aimed to determine the frequency and association of different types of personality characteristics in patients with migraine and tension headaches.

This descriptive-analytic study was done on 160 (12 male and 148 female) subjects with chief complaint of headache whome referred to 5th Azar clinics of Gorgan، Iran during 2007-08. Subjects were selected by simple random sampling and were examined by either a neurologist or psychiatrist patient with diagnosis migraine either of or tension headache were included. Selected patients evaluated by short form of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Data were analyzed using SPSS-13 and Chi-Square test.

The mean age was 11. 18±33. 29 in women and 34. 33±13. 7 in men. 96 patients (60%) had tension headache and 64 (41. 2%) had migraine. In tension headache، depressed personality (43. 8%) and hysterical personality (16. 4%) were more common but in migraine headache، depressed personality (48. 9%) and paranoid personality (20%) were common but this difference was not significant.

This study showed that there is no relation between personality characteristics with tension headach and migraine.