Migraine Headaches

According to Sue, Sue and Sue (1994), the distinguishing features of a migraine headache consist of constriction of cranial arteries, followed by the dilation of the cerebral blood vessels which result in moderate to severe pain. These headaches can last from a few hours to several days and are often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Sue, Sue and Sue (1994) state that migraines are of two general types. These are:

(1) The classic type which starts with an intense constriction of the blood vessels in the brain that dramatically diminishes the blood supply; commonly this type of migraine is accompanied by neurological symptoms such as distortion of vision, numbness of body parts, and/or speech and coordination problems. Due to the constriction of the blood vessels, each heartbeat produces a characteristic pulsating or throbbing pain in the sufferer of this type of migraine headache.

(2) The common type of migraine headache is one in which the first phase is less severe than that of the classic type. Also, neurological symptoms often are not associated with this type.

What causes a migraine headache? Although it is known that certain chemicals such as sodium nitrate (an additive used in meats such as hot dogs), monosodium glutamate (often used in Asian food) and tyramine (present in red wines) can produce headaches by distending blood vessels in some people, Sue, Sue and Su

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aylor (1990) compared Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of 150 headache patients (1868 years old). One-third of sample patients had migraine headaches, one-third had tension-type headaches and the remaining one-third of the sample had a combined form of headache. All subjects were drawn from a free-standing, fee-for-service headache clinic. An additional 150 patients were drawn from a university-based research clinic in order to compare whether type of treatment center contributed to variance on dependent measures. Overall, findings showed that subjects in both settings did not differ on psychological characteristics as assessed by the MMPI. However, there was a trend toward more disturbance among migraine headache sufferers at the university-based research center (for psychopathy and mania), while tension headache patients at the free-standing headache center showed more psychopathy and had history of headaches for significantly less time. Merikangas, Stevens and Angst (1993) investigated the association between personality, symptoms, and headache subtypes in a prospective longitudinal epidemiologic study of 379 young adults from the general population of Zurich, Switzerland. Personality was a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6064
Approximate Pages = 24 (250 words per page)

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