Personality Traits and Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Patients With Medication-Overuse Headache Versus Episodic Migraine.

OBJECTIVE

An episodic migraine (EM) may lead to medication-overuse headache (MOH), an abnormal behavioral pattern of noncompliance. Anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and disorders caused by psychoactive substances other than analgesics all have been reported with MOH at higher rates than with EM. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships between personality traits and anxiety and depressive disorders and headache type.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, 55 patients with EM and 50 patients with MOH were recruited from were recruited from 2 university hospital clinics in Tehran, Iran, from January 2013 to November 2015. Personality traits were assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125). Patients were assessed for depression with the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and anxiety with the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7).

RESULTS

There was no significant difference between the 2 groups regarding sex, age, or educational level. The TCI-125 analysis between the 2 groups showed a significant mean ± SD difference in reward dependence (EM: 9.77 ± 2.06, MOH: 8.69 ± 2.15, P = .01) and self-transcendence (EM: 8.42 ± 2.45, MOH: 6.83 ± 3.90, P = .03). The GAD-7 and PHQ-9 analyses demonstrated no significant difference between the 2 groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Reward-dependence and self-transcendence scores were significantly lower in patients with MOH than in those with EM. These results suggest that people with lower reward-dependence and self-transcendence scores may not adequately respond to prescribed medications, leading them to the frequent use of multiple drugs at higher doses. A multidisciplinary approach to management may be suggested for migraine patients, and it is reasonable to consider behavioral therapy in conjunction with pharmacotherapy to ameliorate comorbid conditions.