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Non‐Invasive Treatment of Vascular and Muscle Contraction Headache: A Comparative Longitudinal Clinical Study
Author(s) -
Reich Barry A.
Publication year - 1989
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.1526-4610.1989.hed2901034.x
Subject(s) - medicine , biofeedback , physical therapy , muscle tone , relaxation (psychology) , relaxation therapy , progressive muscle relaxation , autogenic training , analysis of variance , repeated measures design , migraine , physical medicine and rehabilitation , anesthesia , statistics , mathematics
SYNOPSIS The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the long‐term course of non‐invasively treated chronic headache. A total of 1015 adult patients with primary diagnosis of vascular/ migraine or muscle contraction headache participated in the study investigating symptom frequency and severity over a 36 month period after receiving treatment. Treatment consisted of either: relaxation training (stepwise relaxation/hypnosis/ autogenic training/cognitive behavior therapy); biofeedback (thermal/photoplethysmograph/EMG); micro‐electrical therapy (TENS/Neurotransmitter Modulation) or multimodal treatment (combination of any of the above two treatments). Seven hundred and ninety‐three patients returned sufficient data to be included in the analysis. Patients were randomly assigned to treatment groups and received either short term intervention (15 or less treatments) or long term intervention (greater than 15 treatments). Results indicate that all treatment conditions significantly reduced frequency and intensity of cephalalgia. Repeated measure analysis of variance indicated that grouping variables of Biofeedback treatment, symptoms being evidenced less than 2 years and receiving over 15 treatment sessions best predicted successful intervention.