title: Migraine and Meditation: Characteristics of Cortical Activity and Stress Coping in Migraine Patients, Meditators and Healthy Controls-An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study.
abstract: The aim of this exploratory cross-sectional study was to investigate the characteristics of cortical activity and stress coping in migraine patients, meditation experienced subjects, and healthy controls. 45 meditation experienced subjects, 46 migraine patients, and 46 healthy controls took part in the study. Cortical activity was measured with the contingent negative variation (CNV), a slow cortical event-related potential. Stress coping was examined with the standardized Stress Coping Questionnaire SVF-78. A one-way analysis of variance was used to investigate possible differences between the groups. CNV-amplitude was significantly higher in migraineurs than in controls. The meditators showed significantly lowest amplitudes. Migraine patients used negative stress-coping strategies significantly more often than meditators and healthy controls. Especially the application of the strategy "rumination" was most frequent in migraine patients and least frequent in meditators. Moreover, frequent rumination was significantly correlated with high CNV-amplitudes. Cortical and stress processing in people with meditation experience was improved compared to migraine patients and healthy controls.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Medical Faculty, University of Rostock, Gehlsheimer Straße 20, 18147, Rostock, Germany. armin.keller@uni-rostock.de.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Medical Faculty, University of Rostock, Gehlsheimer Straße 20, 18147, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Medical Faculty, University of Rostock, Gehlsheimer Straße 20, 18147, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Hans-Georg
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Wöhlbier
authors.affiliation: Center of Integrative Psychiatry, University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia Helene
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Overath
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Medical Faculty, University of Rostock, Gehlsheimer Straße 20, 18147, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kropp
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D019122:Meditation / Q000523:psychology*; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Contingent negative variation; Cortical activity; Meditation; Migraine; Stress coping