Hope and Explanatory Style: A Study of Outcomes in Inpatient Headache Sufferers

Abstract

Chronic daily headache (CDH) imposes significant burden on sufferers, among which are impaired quality of life, physical suffering, and financial cost. Psychological factors are known to play a considerable role in headache onset, maintenance, progression, and treatment outcome. Furthermore, headache-related disability cannot be accounted for by biological factors alone; both headache symptoms and psychological variables contribute to headache-related disability (Nicholson et al., 2007). Hope is an important predictor of improved health-related quality of life and has been linked with better outcomes for many diseases, disorders, and also in managing pain. Explanatory style, an individual’s style of making sense out of life events, has been associated with a variety of positive health outcomes. At this time, no research exists linking hope and explanatory style with treatment outcomes for CDH. Findings indicate that hope, as assessed through the Herth Hope Index (HHI), and an optimistic explanatory style, as assessed through the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), are closely related constructs. In this study greater hope predicted reduced headache impact for inpatient headache sufferers. Implementation of a hope instilling intervention could be helpful in reducing headache impact for those with CDH.

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