1. Personality characteristics of chronic
tension-type and cervicogenic headaches
by Wanzhen Chen & Prof. Dr. Wei Wang
www.sinauonline.com

2. Outline
1 Introduction 1
2 Methods 7
3 Results 8
4 Discussion 9
5 Conclusion & limitation 10
2

3. One of the most neglected head
pain
3
Chronic Tension-type Headache (CTH)
Most frequent primary headache
Unknown pain mechanisms

4. 4
Psychological factors in CTH -- Review
CTH
More
stressful
events
Harm
Avoidance
Neuroticism
Anxiety;
Depression

5. A secondary headache
caused by the pathology of
the upper cervical spine.
5
Cervicogenic headache (CH)
Psychological features:
fatigability and irritability.

6. 6
Hypothesis
Similar clinical
manifestations
Different pain
mechanisms
Different
personality
traits ?
CTH & CH

7. 7
Methods
Normal Controls：
• Never experienced headache
or other functionally or
organically neurological
disorders
• Free from alcohol or drugs for
at least 72h
Headache Patients：
• According to the IHS criteria
• Free from alcohol or drugs for
at least 72h
• Informed consent signed
63 men were included, 19 with CH, 18 with
CTH, no age differences.

8. 8
Results
Normal
Controls
(n=25)
Cervicogenic
Headache
(n=15)
Chronic Tension-
type Headache
(n=18)
ZKPQ--Neuroticism-
Anxiety
7.8± 3.7 8.2 ± 4.0 11.5 ± 4.0*#
SSS-Total 13.6 ± 4.7# 10.1 ± 3.8 13.7 ± 4.5#
PVP 9.7 ± 4.9 12.7 ± 7.6 16.0 ± 6.0*
注： * P < 0.05 vs. NC; # P < 0.05 vs. CH

9. 9
Discussion
High Neuroticism-Anxiety in chronic tension-
type headache: related to high Harm Avoidance.
Low Sensation Seeking in cervicogenic headache:
a restriction of the range of motion in the neck
Whether abnormal
traits are Causes or
Consequences?

10. 10
Conclusion & limitations
 Higher Neuroticism-Anxiety and depression in chronic
tension-type headache might be subsequent to the head
pain
 Lower Sensation Seeking in cervicogenic headache
might be related to the activity reduction due to neck
trauma.
Numbers of participant were small in each group, and we
only included men.

11. Any comments & questions are welcome
Contact me at cwzdyzj@126.com
www.sinauonline.com
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