Line bisection in medication-overuse and chronic tension-type headaches

Abstract

Background: Both medication-overuse headache (MOH) and drug dependence share similar clinical features and the latter displays some deficits in visuospatial attention. The line bisection performance might help to indicate whether there is also a disruption in the visuospatial attention in MOH. Methods: We administered the line bisection test and measured anxiety and depression levels in 21 patients with MOH, 26 patients with chronic tension-type headaches (CTTH) and in 22 healthy volunteers. Results: On average, MOH patients significantly bisected leftward when referring to both frequency and magnitude, whereas the healthy volunteers and CTTH patients bisected slightly rightward. The levels of anxiety and depression were elevated in both MOH and CTTH patients compared to healthy volunteers, but the anxiety / depression levels were not correlated with the line bisection errors in all participants. Conclusions: We found a pronounced pseudoneglect in MOH, which might indicate a relatively hyperactive right or hypoactive left hemisphere, or both, suggesting the disorder's neuropsychological mechanism might overlap with that of drug dependence.