Auditory evoked potentials and multiple personality measures in migraine and post-traumatic headaches

Migraine sufferers have abnormal cerebral information processing and personality disorders, post-traumatic headache sufferers also have some personality changes. We therefore, studied intensity dependence of auditory evoked potentials, Plutchik-van Praag's depression inventory, Zuckerman's sensation seeking scales and Zuckerman-Kuhlman's personality questionnaire in patients suffering from migraine without aura (n = 26) and chronic post-traumatic headaches (n = 26) as well as in healthy volunteers (n = 30). The migraine group showed significantly increased neuroticism-anxiety than controls, increased intensity dependence of N1-P2, and decreased thrill and adventure score compared with the controls and post-traumatic headaches. The post-traumatic headache had significantly increased depression compared with the controls, and increased disinhibition compared with the controls and migraines. This study demonstrates that the two headache types have different neurophysiological and personality traits. The pronounced intensity dependence of N1-P2 suggests a cortical potentiation response, together with a decreased thrill and adventure seeking, favor a lower serotonergic innervation in migraine. While the elevated disinhibition and depression, as consequences, may be linked with the wide cortical neuronal/axonal degeneration in post-traumatic headache.