Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
The Journal of Headache and Pain
Published in: The Journal of Headache and Pain 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research article

The role of attachment insecurity in the emergence of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents with migraine: an empirical study

Authors: Riccardo Williams, Luigi Leone, Noemi Faedda, Giulia Natalucci, Benedetta Bellini, Elisa Salvi, Paola Verdecchia, Rita Cerutti, Marco Arruda, Vincenzo Guidetti

Published in: The Journal of Headache and Pain | Issue 1/2017

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

It is widely recognised that there are associations between headache, psychiatric comorbidity and attachment insecurity in both adults and children. The aims of this study were: 1) to compare perceived attachment security and anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine without aura and a healthy control group; 2) to test whether the child’s perceived security of attachment to the mother and the father mediated the association between migraine and anxiety.

Methods

One hundred children and adolescents with Migraine without Aura were compared with a control group of 100 children without headache. The Security Scale (measures perceived security of attachments) and the Self-Administered Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents, a measure of anxiety symptoms, were administered to all participants.

Results

The clinical group had lower attachment security than the control group and higher scores on all anxiety scales. Anxiety was negatively correlated with attachment. Children’s attachment to their mother mediated the increase in global anxiety in the clinical group. Insecure paternal attachment was associated with greater insecurity in maternal attachment, suggesting that there is a complex pathway from migraine to anxiety symptoms mediated by perceived insecurity of paternal attachment and hence also by perceived insecurity of maternal attachment.

Conclusion

These results suggest that insecure parental attachment may exacerbate anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine and point to the importance of multimodal interventions, perhaps taking account of family relationships, for children and adolescents with migraine.
Footnotes
1
Standard errors of the direct and indirect (mediation) effects were bootstrap-estimated (5000 samples) and 95% confidence intervals were computed to evaluate the reliability of the effects.
 
Literature
1.
Wöber-Bingöl C (2013) Epidemiology of migraine and headache in children and adolescents. Curr Pain Headache Rep 17(6):341CrossRefPubMed
2.
3.
Egger HL, Angold A, Costello EJ (1998) Headaches and psychopathology in children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 37(9):951–958CrossRefPubMed
4.
Egger HL, Costello EJ, Erkanli A, Angold A (1999) Somatic complaints and psychopathology in children and adolescents: stomach aches, musculoskeletal pains, and headaches. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 38(7):852–860CrossRefPubMed
5.
Mazzone L, Vitello B, Incorpora G, Mazzone D (2005) Behavioral and temperamental characteristics of children and adolescents suffering from primary headache. Cephalalgia 26:194–201CrossRef
6.
Bruni O, Russo PM, Ferri R et al (2008) Relationship between headache and sleep in a non-clinical population of children and adolescents. Sleep Med 9:542–548CrossRefPubMed
7.
Bigal ME, Lipton RB, Holland RP et al (2007) Obesity, migraine and chronic migraine: possible mechanisms of interaction. Neurology 68:1851–1861CrossRefPubMed
8.
Bruijn J, Locher H, Passchier J, Dijkstra N, Arts WF (2010) Psychopathology in children and adolescents with migraine in clinical studies: a systematic review. Pediatrics 126(2):323–332CrossRefPubMed
9.
Antonaci F, Nappi G, Galli F, Manzoni GC, Calabresi P, Costa A (2011) Migraine and psychiatric comorbidity: a review of clinical findings. J Headache Pain 12(2):115–125CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
10.
Bowlby J (1988) A secure base: clinical applications of attachment theory. Routledge, London
11.
Sroufe A, Egeland B, Carlson E, Collins A (2005) The development of the person: the Minnesota study of risk and adaptation from birth to adulthood. Guilford Press, New York
12.
DeKlyen M, Greenberg MT (2008) Attachment and psychopathology in childhood. In: Cassidy J, Shaver PR (eds) Handbook of attachment: theory, research and clinical applications, 2nd edn. Guilford Press, New York, pp 637–665
13.
Tarantino S, De Ranieri C, Dionisi C, Gagliardi V, Paniccia MF, Capuano A, Frusciante R, Balestri M, Vigevano F, Gentile S, Valeriani M (2017) Role of the attachment style in determining the association between headache features and psychological symptoms in migraine children and adolescents. An analytical observational case-control study Headache, doi:10.​1111/​head.​13007.
14.
Hafeman DM, Schwartz S (2009) Opening the black box: a motivation for the assessment of mediation. Int J Epidemiol 38:838–845CrossRefPubMed
15.
Bretherton I, Munholland K (2008) Internal working models in attachment relationships. In: Cassidy J, Shaver P (eds) Handbook of attachment: theory, research and clinical application, 2nd edn. Guilford Press, New York, pp 102–130
16.
Headache Classification Committee of the International Headache Society (IHS) (2013) The international classification of headache disorders, 3rd edition (beta version). Cephalalgia 33(9):629–808CrossRef
17.
18.
Esposito M, Parisi L, Gallai B et al (2013) Attachment styles in children affected by migraine without Aura. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 9:1513–1519PubMedPubMedCentral
19.
20.
Berry JK, Drummond PD (2014) Does attachment anxiety increase vulnerability to headache? J Psychosom Res 76(2):113–120CrossRefPubMed
21.
Tarantino S, De Ranieri C, Dionisi C et al (2015) Migraine equivalents and related symptoms, psychological profile and headache features: which relationship? J Headache Pain 16:536CrossRefPubMed
22.
Cianchetti C, Sannio-Fancello G (2001) Scale Psichiatriche di Autosomministrazione per Fanciulli e Adolescenti. O. S. Organizzazioni Speciali, Firenze
23.
Tarantino S, De Ranieri C, Dionisi C et al (2013) Clinical features, anger management and anxiety: a possible correlation in migraine children. J Headache Pain 14:39CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
24.
Franzoni E, Monti M, Pellicciari A et al (2009) SAFA: a new measure to evaluate psychiatric symptoms detected in a sample of children and adolescents affected by eating disorders. Correlations with risk factors. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 5:207–214CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
25.
Kerns KA, Klepac L, Cole A (1996) Peer relationships and preadolescents’ perceptions of security in the child-mother relationship. Dev Psychol 32:457–466CrossRef
26.
Van Ryzin MJ, Leve LD (2012) Validity evidence for the security scale as a measure of perceived attachment security in adolescence. J Adolesc 35(2):425–431CrossRefPubMed
27.
28.
29.
Powers SW, Gilman DK, Hershey AD (2006) Headache and psychological functioning in children and adolescents. Headache 46(9):1404–1415CrossRefPubMed
30.
31.
Jette N, Patten S, Williams J, Becker W, Wiebe S (2008) Comorbidity of migraine and psychiatric disorders: a national population-based study. Headache 48:501–516CrossRefPubMed
32.
Masruha MR, Lin J, Minett TS et al (2012) Social anxiety score is high in adolescents with chronic migraine. Pediatr Int 54(3):393–396CrossRefPubMed
33.
Assa A, Ish-Tov A, Rinawi F et al (2015) School attendance in children with functional abdominal pain and inflammatory bowel diseases. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 61(5):553–557CrossRefPubMed
34.
Rousseau-Salvador C, Amouroux R, Annequin D et al (2014) Anxiety, depression and school absenteeism in youth with chronic or episodic headache. Pain Res Manag 19(5):235–240CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
35.
Tremblay I, Sullivan MJL (2010) Attachment and pain outcomes in adolescents: the mediating role of pain catastrophizing and anxiety. J Pain 11:160–171CrossRefPubMed
36.
Palermo TM, Putnam J, Armstrong G et al (2007) Adolescent autonomy and family functioning are associated with headache-related disability. Clin J Pain 23(5):458–465CrossRefPubMed
37.
Logan DE, Scharff L (2005) Relationships between family and parent characteristics and functional abilities in children with recurrent pain syndromes: an investigation of moderating effects on the pathway from pain to disability. J Pediatr Psychol 30(8):698–670CrossRefPubMed
38.
Barone L, Lionetti F, Dellagiulia A et al (2015) Behavioural problems in children with headache and maternal stress: is Children's attachment security a protective factor? Inf Child Dev. doi:10.​1002/​icd.​1950
39.
Ng QX, Venkatanarayanan N, Kumar L (2017) A systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for the management of pediatric migraine. Headache 57(3):349–362CrossRefPubMed
Metadata
Title
The role of attachment insecurity in the emergence of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents with migraine: an empirical study
Authors
Riccardo Williams
Luigi Leone
Noemi Faedda
Giulia Natalucci
Benedetta Bellini
Elisa Salvi
Paola Verdecchia
Rita Cerutti
Marco Arruda
Vincenzo Guidetti
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
Springer Milan
Published in
The Journal of Headache and Pain / Issue 1/2017
Print ISSN: 1129-2369
Electronic ISSN: 1129-2377
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s10194-017-0769-3

Other articles of this Issue 1/2017

The Journal of Headache and Pain 1/2017 Go to the issue

Research article

Topical dura mater application of CFA induces enhanced expression of c-fos and glutamate in rat trigeminal nucleus caudalis: attenuated by KYNA derivate (SZR72)

Review article

The association between brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene polymorphism and migraine: a meta-analysis

Research article

Association of excessive daytime sleepiness with migraine and headache frequency in the general population

Research article

Symptoms and clinical parameters of pediatric and adolescent migraine, by gender - a retrospective cohort study

Research article

Functional connectivity and cognitive impairment in migraine with and without aura

Review article

Experts’ opinion about the primary headache diagnostic criteria of the ICHD-3rd edition beta in children and adolescents