[Specifics of personality and mental status in children and adolescence with chronic tension-type headache].

Neurological and psychiatric examination of 334 children, aged 7-15 years, 87 (23%) of them suffering from chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) is presented. All the patients had mental (mostly depressive and anxiety) disorders and 95.3% of them--psychosomatic ones. Clinical heterogeneity of CTTH was revealed: in the cases of daily continuous headache there were depressive disorders, in daily intermittent headache--depressive and anxiety-phobic disorders and in frequent headache pattern neurasthenia was predominantly detected. Personality features of CTTH patients were as follows: high anxiety, aggressiveness, asthenia, low "Ego" power, high frustration, sensitivity, hypochondriac, depressive and hysterical tendencies, affective rigidity. Patients realized mostly non-adaptive coping styles both for high and low pain intensiveness. Combination of psychopharmacology, psychotherapy and biofeedback for the CTTH treatment is recommended.