Abstract

PETERSEN, Circe Salcides  and  NUNES, Maria Lucia T.. Cefaléia tensional crônica e psicopatologia. Psic [online]. 2002, vol.3, n.2, pp. 30-43. ISSN 1676-7314.

This research was designed to investigate if there is a similar pattern of mental structure in the examined sample. To reach this objective we used the theoretical approach of psychoanalysis and concepts originated from the School of Psychosomatic of Paris. The instruments used were the MMPI (Multiphasic Minesota Personality Inventary) [Hathaway and Mc kinley, 1971]; BDI (Beck Depression Inventary) [Cunha, Freitas & Raimundo, 1993] and the TAT (Thematic Aperception Test) [Murray,1973]. TAT was analyzed according to the approaches proposed by the Laboratory of Projective Psychology of Paris (Shentoub, Chabert & Shretien, 1990). The most significant findings in our study were: chronic tension-type headache is associated with psychopathology; 50% of the subjects presented manifest depression and there is not a single pattern of mental structure, therefore, the symptom can be associated to the conflict and/or deficit; headache can be a conversive symptom denoting a symbolic content. However, conversion can be associated with different kinds of psychopathology. The patients had a common characteristic that was the difficulty to deal with their aggressive fantasies.There is precise scotomas connected to these intolerable aggressive representations resulting in mental castration and difficulty to elaborate these conflicts in their minds.The headache can be pointing at risk of progressive disarrangement in the somatic sphere.

Keywords : Chronic headache; Psychopathology; Depression; Psychosomatic.

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