Headache in schizophrenic patients: a controlled study

Various studies have indicated that chronic schizophrenic patients share a lower rate of headaches than the normal population. A questionnaire concern ing the symptomatology of headache was administered to 108 schizophrenic pa tients in the chronic stage and to 100 normal subjects. The questions dealt with type, location, frequency, severity, and duration of headache, as wel l as with its accompanying phenomena. Both groups shared a high distributio n of headache reports, and generally no significant differences were observ ed in the various parameters. It was found that schizophrenic patients tend to refrain from complaining about their headache, although they are capabl e of its precise description. No correlation was found between the type of headache and type of schizophrenia.