Memory functions in patients with chronic daily headache

Memory loss is a common complaint in headache sufferers. 71 patients, 50 women and 21 men, affected by chronic daily headache with different diagnoses at onset and at study entry underwent a test battery in order to evaluate both short- and long-term memory according to the different sensorial pathway of data acquirement. Statistical analysis of the results was performed using means of Spearman's correlation coefficients, analysis of variance, chi-square, Fisher's test and Mann-Whitney U test. A percentage of patients, ranging from 2% to 56%, according to the different tests, showed a worse performance than normal subjects. The percentage of the subjects with memory difficulty was higher in women and in patients with migraine-type headache at onset, but was not different between overusers and nonoverusers of analgesics, nor among the different forms of present headache. A complex neurotransmitter disorder might account for impairment of both short- and long-term memory in headache patients.