Life event stress and headache frequency revisited.

Life stress is found to be related to headache frequency in some studies, but not others. Research designs that find a relationship between the two tend to evaluate young subjects and employ large sample sizes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between headache frequency and life stress, while considering gender and age differences that may be present in the relationship. In addition, as depression or presence of headache at the time of assessment may influence the report of headache frequency, an attempt to control for these factors was employed. Several self-report measures of headache symptomatology, headache presence, depression, and life stress were completed by 1289 subjects. Negative life event stress was found to be modestly but significantly related to headache frequency. The relationship between the 2 variables was stronger for women than for men and, after the influence of depression and headache state was removed, the relationship between life stress and headache frequency remained significant only for women. In the oldest 10% of the sample, there was no evidence of a relationship between negative life event stress and headache frequency.

Objective behavior associated with an "ordinary" mild headache: a surprising failure of pain onset to signal self-protective or self-regulatory behavior.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to determine whether onset of an "ordinary" headache initiated self-protective behavior or self-regulation, as indexed by a reduction in effort expenditure. METHODS: A nonclinical sample was employed. The ambition and performance accuracy of a headache-developing group (n = 23) and a sex-matched, headache-free group (n = 23) was compared during a series of mental arithmetic problems. Embedded within the series of math problems was a task involving recall of a stressor previously found to induce headache in many subjects. RESULTS: Onset of mild head pain did not lead to effort conservation; instead, heightened ambition appeared to characterize the headache-developing participants before as well as after headache onset. Headache-developing subjects also displayed a performance accuracy deficit. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest unusually ambitious, effortful task engagement may contribute to the onset of mild "ordinary" headache. This possibility requires further examination under other controlled conditions as well as in the natural environment.

Tension headache: disregulation at some levels of stress.

This study evaluated the role of stress disregulation in tension headache. Two headache groups, a low-life stress group (N = 12) and a high-life stress group (N = 12), that represented different probable etiologies within the disregulation model were compared to analogous control groups. Subjects were selected after screening 441 undergraduate students. Measures of frontalis EMG and self-report acute stress were obtained at multiple intervals during a series of four laboratory stress tasks. Data supported the disregulation model as determined by replication of the significantly different correlations between self-report acute stress and EMG for the headache versus control groups reported by Hovanitz and co-workers (1989), and by several new within-group and within-individual analyses. Curiously, disregulation was found for acute and life stress but not for the intermediate level of daily hassle stress. These data are presented as support for a reformulation of Schwartz' disregulation model.

Coping and attributional styles as predictors of depression.

This study examined how coping styles relate to attributional styles and how the two interact in relation to depression. One hundred seventy-six subjects completed the Ways of Coping Checklist, the Attributional Style Questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Problem-focused coping correlated with stable and global attributions for positive events for men. Emotion-focused coping correlated with internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events for women and internal and global attributions for men. Correlations between depression and attributions as predicted by the reformulated model of helplessness were significant only for women. These results indicate that research on attributional styles should analyze all data separately by gender. While the results show that both coping and attributions accounted for some of the variance in depression for females, coping contributed considerably more unique variance than attributions.

Life stress and clinically elevated MMPI scales: gender differences in the moderating influence of coping.

Coping styles were evaluated as moderators of life stress-psychopathology relationships. Five hundred twenty-one undergraduates (271 females and 250 males) completed the Life Experiences Survey, the Coping Strategies Inventory, and the MMPI. To assess maladaptive coping styles, groups were constructed for each of 8 clinical scales (Hs, D, Hy, Pd, Pa, Pt, Sc, and Ma) composed of all subjects with a clinically significant elevation on that scale. The coping styles of these "clinical" groups were compared to the coping styles of "normal" groups, made up of subjects whose life stress scores were approximately the same but whose corresponding MMPI scale scores were within normal limits. To assess adaptive coping styles, a group of effective copers (with high life stress but normal MMPI profiles) was compared to a group of less effective copers (with high life stress but with at least one scale outside of normal limits). All groups were constructed separately for gender. The predicted gender differences and specific coping style-psychopathology relationships were, by and large, found. Coping style differences between the effective and less effective copers were also found. These findings suggest that several coping styles are important moderators of life event stress-psychopathology relationships.

Complexities in life stress-dysfunction relationships: a case in point--tension headache.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to evaluate the role of disregulation in tension headache and (2) to demonstrate how disregulation may lead to erroneous inferences about the etiological role of stress in tension headache. A headache group (N = 25; ages 18 to 30) and a control group (N = 25; ages 10 to 25) matched for sex and roughly equated for psychopathology and self-report life stress was selected after screening 1219 undergraduate students. Measures of self-reported acute stress and headache status, vigilance performance, frontalis EMG, and peripheral temperature were obtained. Both groups were assessed before, during, and after a stressful hour-long vigilance task. The results provide the frequently sought but rarely, if ever, obtained support for Schwartz's disregulation model. As disregulation was apparent with respect to both self-report acute stress and life stress, the results also suggest that reliance on self-report measures of life stress in studies of the physical outcomes of life stress may conceal the process by which life events results in physical dysfunction.

Dimensions of coping that contribute to psychopathology.

In an attempt to clarify the components of coping that relate to psychopathology, this study evaluated the simultaneous contribution of coping ability and coping actually executed, as well as the independent contribution of each, to psychopathology. Ninety female college students served as the primary sample, while an additional sample of 90 female college students served as the cross-validation sample. Each subject completed the MMPI and two versions of the Ways of Coping Checklist. Findings suggest that, while coping actually executed and coping ability show substantial overlap, both components of coping independently contribute unique variance to psychopathology. Implications for coping research and theory are discussed.

The validity of MMPI subtle and obvious items in psychiatric patients.

This study was designed to assess the validity of four clinical scales with and without subtle items; and the relative validity of obvious and subtle items. Criteria were questionnaire, mental status, diagnostic, and drug treatment measures; subjects were 73 psychiatric inpatients. Across criteria, the results indicated that the validity of the full scales was not improved by the removal of subtle items; and with the exception of the PD scale, subtle items generally were found to be of similar convergent validity and possibly superior discriminant validity. These findings have implications for psychometric theory and test construction strategies.

Life event stress and coping style as contributors to psychopathology.

Despite the nearly universal finding that life event stress is related to psychopathology, the strength of these relationships is weak. In an attempt to increase the strength of the correlation between life event stress and psychopathology, this study evaluated the simultaneous contribution of life event stress and coping style, as well as the independent contribution of each, to psychopathology. Seventy-six male and 74 female college students served as primary subjects, while an additional 57 male and 60 female college students served as a cross validation sample. Each subject completed the Life Experiences Survey, the Coping Strategies Inventory, and the MMPI. Sex differences were found in the type of coping style related to psychopathology, the relative contributions of coping style and negative life stress to psychopathology, and the percentage of variance accounted for in psychopathology. Future research was recommended to include other variables, such as chronic life stress and physiological reactivity, and to control better for such methodological problems as response sets.

The prediction of paranoid behavior: comparative validities of obvious vs. subtle MMPI Paranoia (Pa) items.

Assessed the relations among the obvious, neutral, and subtle MMPI Paranoia (PA) subscale scores and criteria that consisted of Mehrabian's Stimulus Screening Scale, Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale, a Paranoia Questionnaire, the Einstellung Test, and an unobtrusive measure of personalization. Male college students served as Ss (N = 100). The obvious PA subscale was found to be correlated significantly with Mehrabian's Stimulus Screening Scale, Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale (in a negative direction), and the Paranoia Questionnaire. The neutral PA subscale was related significantly to Mehrabian's Stimulus Screening Scale, Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale (also in a negative direction), and, at a trend level, the Einstellung Test. The subtle subscale correlated with Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale (in a positive direction) and an unobtrusive measure of personalization. Correlations among the criteria themselves were generally insignificant, but the relationships found supported the use of the paranoia criteria as measures of the intended construct.

The prediction of impulsive behavior: comparative validities of obvious vs. subtle MMPI hypomania (MA) items.

Assessed the relative predictive validity of obvious (0), neutral (N), and subtle (S) items of the MMPI Ma scale (N = 86 males). Subtle-obvious ratings were compared to criteria in the three types of measurement delineated by Cattell, namely, questionnaire, life-history, and objective tests. Ma-O was correlated positively with the Experience Seeking factor of the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) as well as time taken and errors on the Porteus Maze, while Ma-S was correlated positively with the Thrill and Adventure Seeking factor of the SSS and the biographic questionnaire. Ma-N, on the other hand, was not related to any criteria. Because the correlations among the criteria themselves were generally insignificant, it was suggested that hypomania is not a homogeneous construct.