Aminergic tone correlates of migraine and tension-type headache: A study using the tridimensional personality questionnaire

Background.-Aminergic neurotransmitter activity has been studied in many neuropsychiatric diseases by means of a self-administered questionnaire proposed by Cloninger, Given that central aminergic modulation plays a major role in the pathophysiology of primary headaches, we investigated the personality dimensions related to aminergic neurotransmitter activity in patients with migraine and tension-type headache. Methods.-From a consecutive series of 230 patients, we selected those presenting with migraine and tension-type headache according to the International Headache Society criteria, All patients were assessed by means of the Cloninger 100-item self-report Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire and a depression scale, The four dimensions of personality are novelty seeking (dopaminergic), harm avoidance (serotonergic), reward dependence (noradrenergic), and persistence (glutaminergic). Results.-One hundred twenty-one patients presenting with migraine and 42 with tension-type headache were recruited. The results indicate significantly higher harm avoidance scores (P<.001) in both patients with migraine and those with tension-type headache than in controls. Furthermore, patients with migraine had a significantly low score in the novelty seeking dimension (P<.001), When we compared only the two groups of patients with headache, we found that the persistence dimension alone was significantly higher in patients with migraine than in those with tension-type headache (P<.05), No differences were observed either in the overall scores of the other personality dimensions or in the depression scale scores. Conclusions.-The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire results support a role of the serotonergic system in both migraine and tension-type headache pathophysiology, A dysfunction of dopaminergic and glutaminergic tone seems to be a specific feature of migraine.