The burden of headache is associated to pain interference, depression and headache duration in chronic tension type headache: a 1-year longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND

To investigate variables associated at one year (longitudinal design) with the physical or emotional component of burden in chronic tension type headache (CTTH).

METHODS

One hundred and thirty (n = 130) individuals with CTTH participated in this longitudinal study. Clinical features were collected with a 4-weeks headache diary at baseline and 1-year follow-up. The burden of headache was assessed at baseline and one -year follow-up with the Headache Disability Inventory (HDI), physical (HDI-P) or emotional (HDI-E) component. Sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-HADS), and quality of life (SF-36) were also assessed at baseline. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations between the baseline variables and the headache burden at 1-year. Simple mediation models were also applied to determine the potential mediation effect of any intermediary variable.

RESULTS

Regression analyses revealed that baseline pain interference and depression explained 32% of the variance in the emotional burden of headache, whereas baseline emotional burden of the headache, pain interference, and headache duration explained 51% of the variance in the physical burden of headache (P < .01) at 1-year. The mediation models observed that the effect of baseline pain interference on emotional burden of headache at 1-year was mediated through baseline depression, whereas the effect of baseline pain interference on the physical burden of headache at 1-year was mediated through baseline emotional burden of headache (both P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

The current study found a longitudinal interaction between pain interference and depression with the burden of headache in individuals with CTTH.