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Short‐term Psychotherapy and Refractory Headache
Author(s) -
Barnat Michael R.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
headache: the journal of head and face pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.14
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1526-4610
pISSN - 0017-8748
DOI - 10.1111/j.1526-4610.1981.hed2106257.x
Subject(s) - psychotherapist , referral , intervention (counseling) , psychology , refractory (planetary science) , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , family medicine , physics , astrobiology
SYNOPSIS As seemed necessary, short‐term exploratory psycho‐therapy was offered to patients seeking treatment for refractory headache. The reasons for their psycho‐therapeutic referral included patient request, refractoriness to all medication, emotional traumatization at the time they were seen, or suspected family or marital triggers for headache. An attempt was made to sample the responses of these patients. Patients were asked via a specially devised form to state why they thought they were referred for psychotherapy, what they perceived they derived from the process and how they perceived it from a cost‐benefit standpoint. Preliminary findings suggest that patients do see a general rationale to referrals and rate the effort more positively than negatively in cost‐benefit terms. Their written interpretation however does not reflect some of the subtle and specific effects of psychotherapeutic intervention.