Personality traits in childhood and adolescent headache

We evaluate personality traits, anxiety and depression in a population of p aediatric and adolescent patients, correlating personality characteristics with headache and sociodemographic variables. The clinical features of head ache include specific personality traits. We report a clinical study of 57 patients (age 8-18 years), divided up as follows: 12 migraine with aura, 29 migraine without aura and 16 tension-type headache. One of Cattel's tests was administered to every patient; the Children's Depression Inventory test was administered to 53 patients and the Test Anxiety Inventory test to 43 subjects. The scores obtained by every patient in each test were correlated with the characteristics of headache and with sociodemographic data. We fo und that patients affected by idiopathic headache share some personality tr aits, mainly emotional rigidity and tendency to repress anger and aggressio n. These traits do not seem to be correlated with sociodemographic data and the duration of headache: we considered these as characteristic of migrain ous patients.