Management of hostility in adult males with migraine headache

Thesis (Ph.D)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study is to investigate the significance of suppression of hostility as a personality attribute of individuals who have a history of migraine headache. Suppression is defined as a psychic process which functions as an adjustive mechanism in the management of hostile impulses. For purposes of this study, it is inferred from the inhibition of the overt, social expression of hostility and the appearance o:f heightened physiological tension. The overt behavior expressive of hostility is designated as aggression. Thus, the general. purpose of this study is an investigation of the management of aggression ih persons who are prone to migraine. Migraine as a specific form of headache has been described as a clinical entity for centuries. Although the disorder was recognized early, its etiology remains in dispute. Causation has been variously ascribed to humoral, gastric, neural, constitutional, hereditary, or emotional factors. The role of emotional factors has received increasing attention, particularly in relationship to personality features of persons susceptible to migraine, and has led to a consideration of migraine as a psychosomatic disorder. Exploratory psychoanalytic case studies have suggested that a characteristic psychodynamic feature of persons with migraine is the suppression of rage. Suppression is considered to be significant in both the personality structure of such persons and in the precipitation of a migraine attack. These formulations find support in such sources as: (1) the clinical observations of analysts, including the observation that a migraine attack may occur and terminate during a single treatment session, when hostility or rage is relieved by use of appropriate verbalizations; (2) studies dealing with the characteristic personality features of migraine-prone individuals; (3) observations of the events typically antecedent to an attack.[Truncated