Personality traits and psychological complaints under patients suffering from headaches.

Background and purpose:

Although headaches are often comorbid with psychological symptoms, the underlying psychological processes, e.g. the role of personality dimensions as headache determinants remains unclear. Studies found associations between headaches and various personality traits; according to the Big Five model of personality, persons suffering from headaches exhibit a higher rate in neuroticism, while a lower rate in extraversion, openness to experiences and positive emotions. This is the first study to clarify the associations among duration, intensity, and frequency of headaches and personality dimensions. Through this study we could get into the personality dimensions in the background of pain experience and that which personality dimensions bear a part in the behaviour of the persons, who suffered from headache, but do not seek treatment through this complaint. 

Treated (Group1) and untreated (Group2) headache patients and healthy controls (Group3) were investigated (total of 360 participants). The main headache components of intensity, duration, and frequency were used as dependent variables with personality dimensions in the Big Five concept investigated by the NEO-PI-R Personality Inventory.

Employing multiple regression analysis, facets of personality described 14.7% of headache intensity, 10.9 % of duration, and 18.7 % of frequency variance. Group1 and Group2 reached significantly higher values on the dimension of anxiety, depression, and vulnerability to stress than Group3. Group1 showed a significantly higher value on trust personality dimension than Group3 and Group2. Group3 exhibited a significantly higher value in the trust dimension than Group2. Concerning vulnerability to stress, the highest value was yielded by the “treated and suffering from headaches” group and there was a significant difference also with the “untreated and suffering from headaches” group and with the control group. In this dimension, the “untreated and suffering from headaches” group’s point value was significantly higher than the control group’s (p<0.01, U=-4.501).

Our study demonstrates that the three headache components are not independent from personality traits, and personality traits may interact with treatment seeking behavior even in the presence of significant headache complaints. The role of the personality traits are significant in the intensity, duration and frequency of headaches. 

[Experience with Risperidone in the treatment of institutionalized mentally retarded patients, with special reference to treatment of aggressive states]. / Risperidonnal szerzett tapasztalataink mentálisan retardált betegeket ellátó szakotthonban, különös tekintettel az agresszív állapotok kezelésére.

Aggression has become a problem of our everyday life; every psychiatrist meets aggressive patients in his practice almost daily. Aggression represents a special problem in the case of institutionalized, mentally retarded (severe and moderate) patients, when it is associated with agitation, deficit of critical functions, impulsiveness, mood disorders. The nursing staff of these institutions is often overworked; the affective outbursts and aggressive behavior of mentally retarded patients may provoke a hostile attitude on the part of the nursing staff towards the patients. In the case of mentally retarded patients, unpredictable events may occur at any time. The structural background of mental retardation, the function of the affected cerebral structures, is not completely clarified. It was found in several studies that risperidone is effective in the treatment of agitation and aggressive behavior; the incidence of side effects is much lower than in the case of typical antipsychotics. We started the treatment with risperidone of 60 mentally retarded patients; we evaluated the therapeutic outcome after a three-month follow-up period using a rating scale made specially for this purpose. An attempt was made to compare the therapeutic results obtained in the risperidone group with the condition of patients receiving typical antipsychotics. It was found that, in the case of several items (aggression, agitation, deficit of critical functions, mood disorders, sleep disturbances, involvement in therapeutic activities), risperidone was significantly more effective than typical antipsychotics, and the incidence of extrapyramidal symptoms and other adverse events was much lower. It was hardly necessary to impose restraints in the risperidone group. In the care of mentally retarded patients, the use of risperidone has many long-term advantages, and hence it represents an effective alternative to typical antipsychotics.