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Inpatient Treatment of Headache: Long‐Term Results
Author(s) -
Diamond Seymour,
Freitag Frederick G.,
Maliszewski Michael
Publication year - 1986
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.1526-4610.1986.hed2604189.x
Subject(s) - medicine , biofeedback , headaches , modalities , treatment modality , physical therapy , multidisciplinary approach , drug treatment , refractory (planetary science) , intensive care medicine , pediatrics , surgery , social science , physics , sociology , astrobiology
SYNOPSIS In certain refractory cases of headache, inpatient therapy in a headache treatment unit may prove beneficial. Strict criteria for admission to this unit have been developed. To ascertain the long‐term benefits of treatment, a survey was sent to 372 consecutive patients. A 41% response rate was achieved. Fifty‐four percent of the patients had a greater than 50% reduction in headache unit index at the time of the survey and 59.6% had a greater than 50% reduction in the corrected headache unit index. Approximately 10% of those responding to the survey had become and remained completely headache‐free. Medical management and non‐drug therapies such as biofeedback and dietary instruction were viewed as being the most important treatment modalities by the patients. Psychological modalities were of benefit to 72% of the patients and biofeedback was useful to 54% of the patients. These results prompt us to believe that the multidisciplinary inpatient treatment of headache is beneficial to the majority of patients whose headaches have been refractive to traditional outpatient treatment.