Comparison of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Individuals with Migraine, Tension, and Normal Headaches

Abstract

Background: Headaches are a major focus of public health efforts. As stress and emotional disturbances play a role in various forms of headaches, emotion regulation can be thought of as a factor in adaptation and successful management of this illness. The effectiveness of cognitive emotion management strategies in women and men with migraine headaches and tension headaches, and healthy people was investigated in this study. Methods: This research was a causal-comparative research. In the first 6 months of 2020, 60 patients with migraine tension headaches were studied in the neurology clinic of the Abdi Waluyo Hospital in Jakarta. Positive techniques (vision formation, positive refocus, positive appraisal, and planning) and negative strategies (self-blame, blaming others, rumination, and catastrophic perception and acceptance) in emotion regulation were obtained using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. In addition, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Tukey's range test were used. Results: According to the findings, individuals with migraines employ fewer positive techniques in the cognitive management of their emotions than people without migraines (group factor effect: P = 0.36). Moreover, the findings revealed a significant difference in the usage of positive methods by women and men in both groups, with women employing more positive tactics (gender*group effect: P < 0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that self-regulation is a component that can cause headaches in patients. The clinical applications of this study include how people with headaches use cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the etiology and design of therapeutic interventions.