Anxiety sensitivity and dissociative experiences in adolescents with migraine and tension type headache

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between headache and anxiety sensitivity (AS), and also headache and dissociative experiences (DE) in adolescents. Methods: Patients were recruited from the adolescents who were admitted to Ankara University Faculty of Medicine Child Neurology Clinic with a complaint of headache and diagnoses of migraine (n=24) or tension type headache (TTH) (n=22). All patients and healthy controls (n=28) were encouraged to complete Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) and Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (ADES). Results: Patients with headache had higher scores from CASI and ADES instruments in comparison with the healthy adolescents. In case the patient group was divided into two groups regarding to their diagnoses, both migraine and TTH group had higher scores from CASI than control group. However, although TTH group had higher ADES scores than control group, there was no significant difference between migraine and control groups. Likewise, CASI and ADES scores of migraine and TTH groups were not different. Conclusion: Adolescents with headache are having higher AS and DE than normal controls. The diagnosis of migraine or TTH does not change these results in terms of AS. However, adolescents with migraine are not having higher DE than normal controls.