THE RELATIONSHIP OF LOCUS OF CONTROL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL-BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE IN CHRONIC HEADACHE

It has been suggested that patients' perceptions of the impact chronic headache has on their lives as well as perceived control of their hea daches may be associated with the intensity, duration, and exacerbatio n of pain they experience. The present study examined associations amo ng International Headache Society (IHS) diagnostic category. pain char acteristics such as severity and duration, perceived impact and contro l of headaches, and adaptive response. Two hundred twenty-five patient s with migraine, tension-type, or combined migraine and tension-type h eadache served as subjects. General activity level was related to IHS diagnosis, with migraine headache patients reporting that they are mor e active than tension-type headache patients (F(2, 196) = 5.69. P < .0 1). Headache locus of control was not significantly related to IHS dia gnosis, however external headache locus of control was significantly r elated to headache intensity (r = .32, P < .001, r = .25, P < .001), a s well as to patients' perceptions of the extent to which pain interfe red with various domains of their lives (r = .33, P < .001, r = .28, P < .001), and adaptive response (F(6, 402) = 4.68, P < .001). It appea red that perceived control over headaches and perceived impact of head aches were not related to IHS diagnostic category and were not strongl y related to each other. but were related to headache severity.