Back to Journals » Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment » Volume 9

Maternal personality profile of children affected by migraine

Authors Esposito M, Roccella M, Gallai B, Parisi L, Lavano SM, Marotta R, Carotenuto M 

Received 15 July 2013

Accepted for publication 8 August 2013

Published 11 September 2013 Volume 2013:9 Pages 1351—1358

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S51554

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 6



Maria Esposito,1 Michele Roccella,2 Beatrice Gallai,3 Lucia Parisi,2 Serena Marianna Lavano,4 Rosa Marotta,4 Marco Carotenuto1

1Center for Childhood Headache, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy; 2Department of Psychology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; 3Unit of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; 4Department of Psychiatry, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy

Background: Empirical evidence of the important role of the family in primary pediatric headache has grown significantly in the last few years, although the interconnections between the dysfunctional process and the family interaction are still unclear. Even though the role of parenting in childhood migraine is well known, no studies about the personality of parents of migraine children have been conducted. The aim of the present study was to assess, using an objective measure, the personality profile of mothers of children affected by migraine without aura (MoA).
Materials and methods: A total of 269 mothers of MoA children (153 male, 116 female, aged between 6 and 12 years; mean 8.93 ± 3.57 years) were compared with the findings obtained from a sample of mothers of 587 healthy children (316 male, 271 female, mean age 8.74 ± 3.57 years) randomly selected from schools in the Campania, Umbria, Calabria, and Sicily regions. Each mother filled out the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – second edition (MMPI-2), widely used to diagnose personality and psychological disorders. The t-test was used to compare age and MMPI-2 clinical basic and content scales between mothers of MoA and typical developing children, and Pearson’s correlation test was used to evaluate the relation between MMPI-2 scores of mothers of MoA children and frequency, intensity, and duration of migraine attacks of their children.
Results: Mothers of MoA children showed significantly higher scores in the paranoia and social introversion clinical basic subscales, and in the anxiety, obsessiveness, depression, health concerns, bizarre mentation, cynicism, type A, low self-esteem, work interference, and negative treatment indicator clinical content subscales (P < 0.001 for all variables). Moreover, Pearson’s correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between MoA frequency of children and anxiety (r = 0.4903, P = 0.024) and low self-esteem (r = 0.5130, P = 0.017), while the MoA duration of children was related with hypochondriasis (r = 0.6155, P = 0.003), hysteria (r = 0.6235, P = 0.003), paranoia (r = 0.5102, P = 0.018), psychasthenia (r = 0.4806, P = 0.027), schizophrenia (r = 0.4350, P = 0.049), anxiety (r = 0.4332, P = 0.050), and health concerns (r = 0.7039, P < 0.001) MMPI-2 scores of their mothers.
Conclusion: This could be considered a preliminary study that indicates the potential value of maternal personality assessment for better comprehension and clinical management of children affected by migraine, though further studies on the other primary headaches are necessary.

Keywords: MMPI-2, childhood migraine, maternal personality

Creative Commons License © 2013 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.