Executive functions in patients with different types of headaches.

Abstract

Patients suffering from headache complain of the appearance of cognitive symptoms, although there is not much research in this regard, so the objective of the study was to analyze the deterioration in executive functions in patients with different types of headaches. The executive functions are processes related to the planning of the behaviour oriented to the achievement of a goal. A cross-sectional study was carried out, with a sample of 48 participants; 18 with vascular headache, 14 with tension headache, 16 with migraine. Significant differences have been found in the capacity for abstraction, which has discriminated between patients with vascular headache and tension headache, as well as between these and patients with migraine. Similarly, overall cognitive performance is different in patients with migraine compared with patients with vascular headache and tension headache. The type of headache and global cognitive impairment moderately affect the variability of abstraction capacity. Finally, the existence of a directly proportional relation of positive nature that indicates a dependent between the variables has been evidenced. It can be concluded that global cognitive deterioration affects the performance of abstraction capacity.