MMPI profiles of Turkish headache sufferers

The investigations of personality traits have been the issue of many studies on patients with headache. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most popular assessment instrument used in these studies. MMPI responses of 36 cases (14 male, 22 female) with tension headache and 44 cases (11 male, 33 female) with migraine headache had been compared with 36 nonheadache controls (12 male, 24 female). Because of the inadequate number of male subjects, the statistical analyses were made between female groups. The results obtained revealed that subjects in the tension-type headache group got significantly higher scores on neurotic subtests (hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria) than subjects in the control group. Likewise, migraine subjects got significantly higher scores on hysteria subtest than control subjects. No significant differences were noted between migraine and tension groups. However, none of the headache groups could be characterized by marked elevations on any of the validity and clinical scales. These results, support the finding that neurotic symptoms occur with a higher frequency in headache sufferers.