In 2016, researchers used a short Spanish screening questionnaire — the Salamanca test — to ask whether people with cluster headache share particular personality traits. This page lets you take a faithful replica of that same test, see your own profile, and then pool your answers with everyone else who has taken it here. The more of us who do, the clearer the picture becomes.
The Salamanca screening test (Cuestionario Salamanca) is a brief, self-administered questionnaire developed in Spain to flag possible personality traits. It contains 22 short statements that map onto 11 personality patterns drawn from the DSM and ICD classifications — grouped into the familiar clusters: the odd or eccentric (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal), the dramatic or emotional (histrionic, antisocial, narcissistic, and two forms of emotional instability), and the anxious or fearful (anancastic, dependent, anxious).
In 2016, a team led by Muñoz and colleagues published a study in The Journal of Headache and Pain that gave this test to people with cluster headache and compared them against people with migraine. They were testing an old, stubborn stereotype — the so-called "cluster personality" — to see whether there was anything measurable behind it.
Muñoz I, Hernández MS, Santos S, et al. Personality traits in patients with cluster headache: a comparison with migraine patients. The Journal of Headache and Pain. 2016;17:25.
What they found. In their 80 cluster headache patients, the most commonly flagged traits were anancastic (obsessive/perfectionistic, ~52%), anxious (~48%), histrionic (~45%), schizoid (~43%), impulsive (~33%) and paranoid (~30%). Compared with migraine patients, cluster headache patients scored significantly higher on paranoid and schizoid traits. Notably, people with episodic and chronic cluster headache did not show different personality profiles from each other.
One important caveat the authors themselves raise: a screening test like this cannot tell you whether living with one of the most painful conditions known to medicine shapes these traits, or whether the traits were there first. It only takes a snapshot. That is exactly why pooling answers from a wider, self-selected community is interesting — not as proof of anything, but as a mirror.
For each statement, choose how often it applies to you: Never, Sometimes, Frequently, or Always — worth 0, 1, 2 and 3 points. This mirrors the original test, where you first decide whether a statement is true of you and then rate its intensity. Each personality trait is built from two statements, giving a score from 0 to 6. Following the Salamanca interpretation, 0–2 is unremarkable, 3–4 is worth reflecting on, and 5–6 sits in the range the test treats as clinically significant.
We deliberately don't show you which trait each statement belongs to while you answer — that comes afterward, in your results, so it doesn't colour your responses.
22 statements. There are no right answers. Your individual responses are stored anonymously and only ever shown pooled together with everyone else's.
Thank you — your answers are in. Below is your own trait profile, then how the wider community scores. Everything here is anonymous and for reflection only.
This page exists for education, curiosity and community, and nothing more. The Salamanca questionnaire is a brief screening tool, not a clinical assessment, and it cannot diagnose anything. A high score on a trait is not a disorder, a label, or a verdict on who you are. Most people score highly on something, and that is completely normal. Living with pain as severe as cluster headache can shape how any of us answer these questions, too. If anything here stirred up worry, please be gentle with yourself and talk it through with a doctor or someone you trust. You are not your score.
The Salamanca questionnaire is a brief screening tool, not a clinical or diagnostic test. This page is here for curiosity, reflection and community — to explore an old stereotype together, not to label anyone. A high score on any trait does not mean you have a personality disorder; most people score highly on something, and that is entirely normal.
Living with a condition as severe as cluster headache can also shape how any of us answer these questions. Please be gentle with yourself. If anything here raises a worry, talk it through with a qualified health professional or someone you trust. You are not your score.
Discussion
Did your profile surprise you? Did it match the stereotype, or push against it? I'd love to hear how it landed for you.