Investigation of personality traits in chronic migraine and episodic migraine patients

Aim: In addition to being a common neurological disorder, migraine is a type of headache that may progress or become chronic with episodes where simultaneous psychiatric symptoms are common. In studies conducted to date, the effect of certain personality traits in migraine patients has been investigated. In our study, it was aimed to compare the clinical and sociodemographic characteristics and personality profiles of healthy individuals with episodic and chronic migraine cases. Materials and Methods: The chronic migraine group is composed of 70 patients and episodic migraine of 70 patients and 70 healthy subjects comprise the control group. Diagnostic criteria of the ICHD-3 beta International Classification of Headache Disorders are used not only for diagnostic accuracy, but for exclusion criteria as well. A detailed clinical history was collected from each patient and a physical examination was performed. For each individual, age, sex, migraine history, number of years with daily headaches, headache pain intensity were recorded. Pain intensity was assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) in which 0 indicated no pain and 10 indicated the worst pain imaginable. All patients were asked to presence of nausea, vomiting, photophobia or phonophobia, osmofobia and whether the aura present or not. The number of days per month with headache were also recorded. The MMPI, specifically the version standardized for the Turkish population was used to analyze personality. All patients were referred to the same psychologist who administered the MMPI. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the sociodemographic characteristics of the patient and control groups such as age, gender and education level (p > 0.05 for all). VAS score of chronic migraine patients was statistically significantly higher than episodic migraine patient group (p <0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups with symptoms of migraine, such as osmophobia, photophobia, phonophobia, nausea (p > 0.05). The presence of aura was statistically significantly higher in the episodic migraine group compared to the chronic migraine patient group (p <0.05). The average of hysteria scores in chronic migraine patients was higher than episodic migraine patients (p <0.05). When the personality traits evaluated with MMPI were examined, the mean scores of hypochondriasis, paranoia, hysteria, conversion, depression and hypomania, psychopathic deviation, femininity, psychopenia, schizophrenia, and social introversion scores of chronic and episodic migraine groups were higher than the control group (p <0.05 for all personality traits). The average of hysteria scores in chronic migraine patients was higher than episodic migraine patients (p <0.05). Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that personality traits such as hypochondriasis, paranoia, hysteria, depression, hypomania, psychopathic deviation, femininity, masculinity, psychopenia, schizophrenia, and social introversion increased in episodic and chronic migraineurs. In addition, hysteria was higher in chronic migraineurs. Personality disorders can be observed at a high rate in migraine patients. In addition to focusing on pain management, identifying personality changes of these patients and establishing appropriate treatment schemes may benefit the treatment of these patients. In the approach to these cases, more successful results can be obtained in the treatment of migraine patients with a multidisciplinary evaluation involving psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists. Clinical trials involving more cases are needed to identify comorbid psychiatric disorders in migraine patients in detail. Keywords: Migraine, MMPI, Personality traits