The relationship between perceived stress, social support and chronic headaches

A group of chronic headache sufferers (migraine and tension-type headache) was compared with a group of nonheadache control subjects in terms of two domains of social support (social integration and functional support), perceived social support, sources of social support, and perceived stress. Headache sufferers and controls were not differentiated with respect to number of social relationships, sources of support and availability of support. In contrast, headache sufferers were significantly less satisfied with the support available to them and scored lower on all four types of functional support measured (appraisal, esteem, belonging and tangible). Support measures did not show a linear relationship with headache chronicity, and were at their lowest at an intermediate point in the headache history rather than at an early or late point. Headache sufferers scored higher on perceived stress than control subjects and differences between the groups increased as a function of headache chronicity. The findings were interpreted as suggesting that clinicians and researchers should focus greater attention on the social dimension of headaches.