Indicadores de sobrecarga emocional em pacientes portadores de cefaleia crônica diária

Abstract

Chronic daily headache (CDH) can be studied according to the psychosomatic perspective. Considering that CDH is a heterogeneous group of headaches and that some comorbidity and emotional factors can trigger the pain such as stress, anxiety and depression; a study that takes into account the emotional overload and its impact on the affected people's lives is very important. Objective: This research aims to investigate the presence of emotional overload in patients with CDH, and the possible reasons which may impair the symptoms as well as to know which are the psychological, social and existential aspects developed by these people. Casuistic and Method: The subjects of this study were 40 patients of both genders, over 18 years of age, who attended the headache clinic of Hospital de Base, Medical School of São José do Rio Preto. A semi-structured interview as reference to the Psychosomatic Psychoanalytic Investigation was used. Results: The sample comprised 10% of males and 90% of females, the ages ranging from 24 to 64 years old. Since the majority of interviews were made up of open questions, it was decided to divide the answers into categories. The most frequent categories when they knew the meaning of getting sick were: psychical suffering (35.53%); physical suffering (23.68%); damage at work (19.74%) and social damage (10.52%). Regarding the question about factors related with pain, the main categories were: nervousness (23.16%); preoccupation (15.79%) and tension (11.58%). The question on how the pain was developed, the most frequent categories were: the attempt at self-cure (27.36%), different kinds of pain (16.98%) and affected by emotions (13.2%). The question on the consequences of the pain, the majority reported the interruption of their activities. The length-time of the disease varied between 2 and 40 years with headaches. It was also observed, if the patients with CDH had diagnosis hypotheses regarding their pains or a "personal insight" on the disease. Among them, psychical factors could trigger the pain with 48.84%, and 34.88% of them did not have hypothesis regarding their headaches. Conclusions: In conclusion, there is some emotional overload in patients with CDH, and the typical performance of the psychosomatic disorders and the operating mind control is directly related with the patient’s complaints. It was also observed aspects of depression associated with the emotional functioning of these people.