Stress reactivity and perception of pain among tension headache sufferers

Twenty-one tension headache sufferers and 21 control subjects were exposed to a series of psychological stressors and an ischemic pain task, involving a tourniquet around the arm. Compared to control subjects, headache patients showed higher heart rates and evidence of more prolonged vasoconstriction in the hands and the ear lobe. No between-group differences in EMG were found, however. Headache patients rated the tourniquet as more painful than did control subjects, and described themselves as more anxious, angry, and depressed. The pattern of results is consistent with the interpretation that headache patients are emotionally and autonomically hyperreactive to pain and to psychological stress.