The Los Angeles Times (2/20, Kaplan) reports that headaches may be triggered by stress, but according to study to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting later this spring, “the more intense a person’s stress, the more time he or she will spend in pain.” For the study, investigators “interviewed 5,159 adults about their headache history and other health factors once every three months from 2010 to 2012.” In addition, “volunteers were asked to rate the intensity of their stress on a 100-point scale.”
The CBS News (2/20, Castillo) website reports the study found “for every 10-point increase on the stress scale, tension-headache sufferers had 6.3 percent more headaches per month or about 3.3 hours more of headaches each month.” People with migraines experienced “a 4.3 percent increase in incidents, or about 4.6 extra headache hours per month.”
Individuals who had “both types of headaches had a 4 percent increase in the length of their headaches, or 3.5 hours per month.
Related Links:
— “Stress makes headaches last longer, study finds, ” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2014.