Psychophysiological characteristics of headache patients.
Migraine, muscle-contraction headache patients, and non-headache controls were physiologically assessed during self-selected 'stressful' and 'relaxing' imagery in headache and non-headache states. Musculoskeletal (frontalis, bilateral temporalis), vascular (heart rate, bilateral temporal artery pulse volume), and autonomic (skin conductance response) measures failed to differentiate the groups on resting response levels--in both headache and non-headache states. 'Stressful' imagery elicited greater reactivity than 'relaxing' imagery in all three response systems, regardless of headache type. However, a group by condition interaction eventuated only for the electromyographic measures, indicating that the muscle-contraction patients were significantly more reactive during stressful imagery than migrainers and controls.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006261:Headache / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*