Chronic daily headache: personality study by means of computerized MMPI-2

Abstract

Unresolved questions in headache research are the roles of drug abuse and psychopathology in headache disorder, especially in chronic daily headache. We investigated the utility of the revised version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) for assessing psychopathology in chronic daily headache patients. Chronic headache sufferers gave characteristic responses on Hy (hypochondria), D (depression) and Hs (hysteria) scales which are known as the “neurotic triad”. Although our data suggest that the MMPI profile types do not discriminate between different diagnosis groups and fail to determine whether psychopathological traits predispose to drug abuse, they nonetheless confirm the importance of psychological assessment as an essential step in the decision to seek medical help for headache.