THE STRESS-RESPONSE IN HEADACHE SUFFERERS - PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIVITY

When examining headache sufferers' reactivity to stress, few studies a ttend to differing characteristics of the environment. In this study, we evaluated the influence of the clarity/ambiguity and positive/negat ive valence of an event on subjects' physiological and psychological r eactivity. Migraine (n=30), tension (n=39), and control (n=35) subject s participated in a laboratory experience in which they had to practic e and then deliver a news story to a videocamera (similar to a newscas ter on television). During this experience, they received performance feedback and were instructed to try to use the information to improve their performance. In reality, this feedback was noncontingent, with s ubjects semirandomly assigned to either a positive, negative, or ambig uous feedback condition. Physiological and psychological measures were collected prior to this experience, during an anticipation or practic e period prior to the newscast, and during a recovery period following the delivery of the news story. Results suggested that tension subjec ts might not attend to information from their environment when assessi ng, responding, or reevaluating potentially stressful events: relying instead on more global beliefs or attributions. Results also indicated that migraine might be associated with a prolonged cardiovascular res ponse (ie, delayed recovery) following a stressful experience.