Noise as a trigger for headaches: relationship between exposure and sensitivity.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated how triggers acquire the capacity to precipitate headaches.


BACKGROUND
Traditional clinical advice is that the best way to prevent headache/migraine is to avoid the triggers. Avoidance of anxiety-eliciting stimuli, however, results in sensitization to the stimuli, so is there a danger that avoidance of migraine/headache triggers results in decreased tolerance for the triggers?


METHODS
One hundred and fifty subjects, 60 of whom suffered from regular headaches, were randomly assigned to 5 experimental conditions, defined by length of exposure to the headache trigger of noise.


METHODS
Subjects attended a laboratory session divided into 3 phases: preintervention test, intervention (1 of 5 levels of exposure to the trigger), and postintervention test. Response to the intervention was measured in terms of noise tolerance, sensitivity to noise, and nociceptive response to noise.


RESULTS
A curvilinear relationship was found between length of exposure to the trigger and pain response for individuals who do not suffer from regular headaches, that is, short exposure was associated with sensitization and prolonged exposure with desensitization. The relationship for headache patients was less clear.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings are consistent with the proposition that 1 etiological pathway to suffering from frequent headaches is via trying to avoid, or escape from, potential trigger factors. These results suggest that the traditional clinical advice to headache patients, that the best way to prevent migraine/headache is to avoid the triggers, runs the risk of establishing an insidious sensitization process thereby increasing headache frequency.
Martin
Paul R
PR
Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, 246 Clayton Road, Clayton, Victoria, 3168 Australia.
Reece
John
J
Forsyth
Michael
M
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D018781:Tension-Type Headache / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*