Psychological peculiarities in children with recurrent primary headache

Thirty-five children with idiopathic headache (average age 10.2 years) were subjected to various examinations and a series of tests (WISC, Bender, Rorschach, Duss, "tree" and "family" tests) on the nature and characteristics of headache with a view to establishing possible psychological peculiarities. The sample was correlated with a random control group of 20 subjects (average age 10.4 years) undergoing all of the above tests except the Rorschach test. This showed a significant decrease in the "digit span" WISC subtest and in the Bender test with respect to normal population, and a drop in "digit span" and in picture completion subtests and in headache length in months. Feelings of being excluded from the family group, insecurity and repressed hostility towards the important figures, were significantly stronger in the headache patients group.