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Pain perception and coping in female tension headache sufferers and headache-free controls

L K Ukestad1, D A Wittrock

  • 1Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo 58105, USA.

Health Psychology : Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
|January 1, 1996
PubMed

The purpose of this study was to investigate how headache sufferers and headache-free controls differ in their responses to acute pain. Thirty-three women completed the study (15 headache sufferers and 18 controls). The cold pressor was used to induce pain, and a partially inflated blood pressure cuff was used as a nonpainful comparison task. Headache sufferers reported more discomfort during both tasks; however, the 2 groups did not differ in the number of facial expressions of pain displayed during the tasks. Headache sufferers reported a tendency to catastrophize during both tasks; positive coping did not differ between the 2 groups. These results offer evidence that recurrent tension headache sufferers are more sensitive to both painful and nonpainful stimuli and that they cope differently from controls with these physical stressors.

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