MMPI PROFILES OF TURKISH HEADACHE SUFFERERS

The investigations of personality traits have been the issue of many s tudies on patients with headache. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality In ventory (MMPI) is the most popular assessment instrument used in these studies. MMPI responses of 36 cases (14 male, 22 female) with tension headache and 44 cases (11 male, 33 female) with migraine headache had been compared with 36 nonheadache controls (12 male, 24 female). Beca use of the inadequate number of male subjects, the statistical analyse s were made between female groups. The results obtained revealed that subjects in the tension-type headache group got significantly higher s cores on neurotic subtests (hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria) tha n subjects in the control group. Likewise. migraine subjects got signi ficantly higher scores on hysteria subtest than control subjects. No s ignificant differences were noted between migraine and tension groups. However, none of the headache groups could be characterized by marked elevations on any of the validity and clinical scales. These results, support the finding that neurotic symptoms occur with a higher freque ncy in headache sufferers.