BACKGROUND

Headache is a common complaint in various diseases. Tension headache is the most common clinical form with headache as the main manifestation of disease. This condition results emotional distress, social maladjustment and impairment of working capacity. Neurobiological nature of tension headache pathogenesis is not clear. The most common vascular disease is arterial hypertension. Patients with increased blood pressure often complain of headache. Until now, there are different points of view on the pathogenesis of headache in patients with hypertension. In this regard, analysis of clinical features of headache in patients with tension headache and hypertension seems to be relevant.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 116 patients aged 18—44 years with arterial normotension and hypertension who complained of headache. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to assess pain syndrome, Spielberger-Hanin scale — for assessment of personal and situational anxiety, hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) — for analysis of anxiety and depression. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) was performed in accordance with the international guidelines. A portable BPLab V.05.02.00 device (Russia) was used for ABPM.

RESULTS

Frequent episodic tension headache is typical in young patients with arterial normotension and no concomitant somatic diseases, as well as in most young patients with arterial hypertension. In some patients with arterial hypertension, the complaints had fundamentally different and diverse nature. Their characteristics did not correspond to complaints of tension headache. We regard these features with previous life experience (more often, features of family history).

CONCLUSIONS

There were no correlations between BP and headache severity. Psychoemotional stress and features of family history are the main factors affecting the nature and severity of headache.