SELF-REPORTED DISABILITY DUE TO HEADACHE - A COMPARISON OF CLINIC PATIENTS AND CONTROLS

Objective.-To compare the self-reported disability of headache suffere rs who seek medical assistance with those who do not seek such help an d determine possible relationships between perceived disability and ps ychological factors. Method.-Subjects were 51 headache patients and 53 persons without medical assistance for their headache within the past 2 years. All subjects completed a structured interview that gathered headache data, a headache disability scale, and the Minnesota Multipha sic Personality Inventory-Revised (MMPI-2). Design.-A 2 x 2 ANCOVA des ign was employed. Subject group (patient vs control) was the first fac tor and headache type (migraine vs mixed) was the second. Covariates w ere headache intensity and five subscales of the MMPI-2. Dependent var iables were the seven subscales of the headache disability scale. Step wise discriminant analysis was conducted to determine which factors be st classified subjects as patients or controls. Setting.-University Me dical Center headache clinic. Results.-Clinic patients reported signif icantly greater disability on their occupation than controls-a differe nce emerging after controlling for level of headache pain and personal ity variables. Patients differed from controls, although not significa ntly, in the rank order of life activities most affected by headache. Discriminant analysis revealed that self-reported disability for occup ation and the Hysteria scale from the MMPI-2 best differentiated the g roups.