Assessment of the Correlation between Stress and Tension-Type Headache by Measuring Salivary a-Amylase Levels

The tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common type of headache across the world with the greatest socioeconomic impact on patient’s life in comparison with other primary headaches. Salivary α-amylase could reflect changes associated with stress in the body. The present study investigated the relationship between stress and frequent episodic tension-type headache by measuring the salivary α-amylase levels.

In this case- control study, 90 females in two groups, a case group with 45 females with frequent episodic TTH and a control group with 45 healthy females were enrolled. The Hamilton stress questionnaire was completed in the two groups to examine the level of stress. Then, salivary α-amylase levels were measured. The data were analyzed with SPSS 18 using t-test and Mann-Whitney test (α = 0.05).

The mean salivary α-amylase activity levels and mean Hamilton questionnaire scores in the case group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p value = 0.001). In addition, there was a significant correlation between the salivary α-amylase activity and Hamilton questionnaire scores in the case (p value = 0.002) and control (p value= 0.001) groups.

According to the result of the present study, salivary α-amylase levels can be an appropriate marker for assessing anxiety in patients with frequent episodic tensiontype headache.