The psychometric pattern: II. Migraine

Summary Twenty-five white males, ranging in age from 17 to 33 years with an average chronological age of 19.6 years, were tested by the complete Wechsler-Bellevue Adult Intelligence Scale in conjunction with neuropsychiatric examination. Each was examined by at least two psychiatrists, and the resulting diagnosis of migraine headache met with general agreement. Data obtained from the test results were analyzed with a view toward determining specific abilities or disabilities on the various subtests and discovering consistencies of function. This was accomplished by considering: (1) the number of patients deviating either positively or negatively on each subtest from their mean weighted scores on all subtests, and (2) the magnitude of the median of these deviations. The mean I. Q. obtained on the full scale was 96.24, =13.80. The difference between the mean verbal and performance I. Q.'s was 2.92 in favor of the performance scale; however, this difference was not statistically significant. When the rank order performance of the migrainous patients on the various subtests was correlated with that of normal subjects, the coefficient was found to be rho=+.536, P. E.=.16. This is larger than that found to exist between neurotics and normals, but smaller than that obtained when the performances of neurotics and migrainous patients are correlated.The best performance of the migrainous patients was evidenced on tests involving visual motor coordination, perceptual discrimination, synthetic and analytical ability, and ability to differentiate essential from nonessential details. Their relatively good performance on the Object Assembly test and relatively poor performance on the Picture Arrangement test were found to be of interest from a clinical standpoint when compared with the observations of other investigators. A discussion of the relationship between the migraine syndrome and the psychoneuroses was presented.The opinions and assertions contained in this paper are those of the writer and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large.