[Temperament and character profile of patients with chronic tension-type headache]

To examine the personality profiles of patients with chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) and controls using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and to determine whether the data acquired were related to the depressive status of patients.

Forty-eight patients with CTTH and 50 age, gender and education level matched, healthy, headache-free control subjects were selected for the study. The Turkish versions of TCI and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were applied to all participants. In the TCI, novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD) and persistence (P) are the 4 dimensions of temperament; self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (C) and self-transcendence (ST) are 3 dimensions of character.

The BDI scores were positively correlated with HA scores (r=0.486, p<0.001) and negatively correlated with SD (r=-0.412, p<0.001) and C scores (r=-0.212, p=0.016). Higher HA scores and lower SD scores were found in CTTH patients when compared to the controls. After using the adjusted TCI scores (after being partialled out for the effect of BDI scores), while similar results of higher HA scores relative to healthy controls were found, SD scores did not differ statistically between the two groups. NS, RD, P, C and ST scores did not differ significantly between the two groups, using either adjusted or unadjusted TCI scores.

The study of personality suggests strong effect of depressive status on SD scores in CTTH patients. Higher HA scores in CTTH patients support the role of serotonergic involvement in the pathophysiology of CTTH.