Psychopathology in individuals with post-traumatic headaches and other pain types.
In this study, the psychological functioning of patients with chronic post-traumatic headache (PTH), chronic combination headache and chronic low back pain without headache, whose time of onset was similar, and a matched group of controls was investigated. The Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R), State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Form Y (STAI-Y), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to assess the degree of psychopathology. A MANOVA test indicated highly significant differences between groups. In general, the pain groups fell along a continuum with PTH subjects demonstrating the highest elevations, back pain subjects demonstrating the next highest elevations, and combination subjects demonstrating fewer elevations. A cluster analysis indicated that findings were best classified into four clusters, but no one pain diagnosis predominated in any cluster. Eighty-nine percent of controls were assigned to clusters 1 or 2, which revealed essentially normal scores on all tests. It is suggested that while chronic pain patients demonstrate more psychopathology than non-pain controls, a variety of coping styles exists within each pain group independent of diagnostic categorization.
Ham
L P
LP
Headache Management and Neurology, Pensacola, FL.
Andrasik
F
F
Packard
R C
RC
Bundrick
C M
CM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011599:Psychopathology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications*