Chronic headache patients' marital and family adjustment

The purpose of this study was to compare the marital and family adjustment of headache patients and their spouses, before pain control treatment, to couples without chronic pain. Minuchin's (1978) family systems theory of psychosomatic illness was tested, using an adult sample. This sample consisted of 117 headache-patient-and-spouse couples and a control group of 108 married couples without chronic pain. A survey design was used with marital and family assessment instruments. Marital and family questionnaires were given to headache patients and their spouses before beginning treatment and were sent to couples without chronic pain. "Headache couples" reported greater differences in consensus, cohesion, affection, and sexual relationships than did control couples. Headache patients reporting greater marital adjustment were more likely to have continuous pain than those reporting less marital adjustment. Headache patients' pain per day correlated positively with greater family cohesion and adaptability. Headache patients' severity of pain correlated positively with greater marital affection. The spouses' marital cohesion, affection, and family cohesion and adaptability correlated positively with increased severity of patients' pain.