Cephalic blood flow correlates of induced headaches

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the cephalic blood flow patterns of subjects with frequent headaches during a headache induction procedure. Thirty-six subjects with muscle-contraction, migraine, or mixed headache symptoms were exposed to a 1-hr stressor designed to induce a headache while multiple cephalic blood volume pulse amplitude (BVPA) was measured. Thirty subjects reported a headache during the procedure, and the procedure was associated with significant changes in several cephalic BVPA measures. Between-group differences were found for several cephalic BVPA sites and there were significant correlations between induced headache activity and cephalic BVPA measures for most subjects. The results support causal roles for psychosocial stressors and cephalic blood flow in muscle-contraction and migraine headache.