Stress and headache - a vicious circle

The more there is stress in a person’s life, the more often he has a headache, and vice versa. Scientists from Germany have found that stress and headache mutually provoke each other's appearance, Fox News reports.

According to press release from the American Academy of Neurology, more than 5,1 thousand people aged 21-71 took part in the research. For two years they were surveyed four times a year on the subject of the rate of their headache and stress. Stress levels were ranked on a scale of 0 - 100.

Overall, 31% of participants had a tension-type headache, 14% had migraine, 11% suffered from  migraine combined with tension-type headache, and 17% had unclassified headaches. Patients with the first type of headache rated their stress at an average of 52 out of 100, while migraine rated at 62 out of 100. Those with migraine and tension-type headaches rated at 59 out of 100.

For each type of pain an increase on the stress scale was tied to an increase in the number of headaches per month. Thus, an increase of 10 stress points was associated with a 6.3 percent headache increase for people with TTH, 4.3 percent increase for migraine and 4 percent increase for migraine and tension headache. Other factors contributing to the headache were also taken into account like alcohol, smoking or frequent use of medications for headaches.

«These results suggest that stress may be a factor in precipitating the beginning of headaches, accelerating the overflowing of the disease into a chronic form and that the headache itself can be a stressor», said  Dr. Sara H. Schramm, of University Hospital at University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. 

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