Health-related quality of life of chronic headache patients is predicted by the emotional component of their pain.

Questions to be answered by this study were: (1) what is the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of migraine and tension headache patients who consult their general practitioner, and (2) what are the unique contributions of the perceptual and emotional components of headaches to the HRQL. The Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) was used to measure the HRQL of patients with migraine (n = 27), tension headache (n = 25), both migraine and tension headache (n = 17), and two reference groups. Perceptual components of the pain (intensity, frequency, and duration) were measured with a headache diary, while emotional components were measured with five visual analogue scales (for tension, depression, frustration, anger and fear). The NHP dimensions of pain, sleep, energy, and social isolation revealed that each headache patient group had a lower HRQL than the healthy reference group. There were no differences in HRQL between the headache groups. Regarding the second question: it was found that the greater the patient's emotional pain, the more problems he or she had with physical mobility and social isolation. Neither the type of headache nor the headache index were related to the HRQL of the patient. We recommend to increase the research efforts concerning tension headache and to measure the emotional component of pain in clinical trials.