Personality traits through psychological dimensions in adolescents with headache: an investigation on how social isolation during the pandemic influenced mental health – a pilot study

Introduction:
We wanted to evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent isolation have influenced some psychological characteristics according to the model of the Big Five theory in a group of adolescents suffering from chronic diseases such as headache.

Material and methods:
Before and after the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic, we administered the Big Five Inventory (BFI) to a group of adolescents suffering from headache. We took into account the presence of protective factors and risk factors, such as psychiatric comorbidity, friendships, relation with parents, perception of school difficulties and bullying, through a structured interview. We used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to evaluate the differences for factors of the Big Five model between the two periods.

Results:
Fifteen patients (12 females and 3 males), with a mean age of 16 years (max. 18 years, min. 13 years), agreed to repeat the evaluation after one year; of these, 7 suffered from tension-type headache, 5 from migraines with aura and 3 females from somatization headache. There was a significant increase in the levels of conscientiousness after the lockdown.

Conclusions:
Our study demonstrated an unexpected improvement in a personality trait considered positive, during a period of high traumatic value. We hypothesize that adolescents suffering from chronic headaches may have peculiar personal characteristics, and that these may be susceptible to some environmental and relational factors.