- Oral presentation
- Open access
- Published:
O006. Efficacy of prophylactic therapy in chronic primary headache with use of biofeedback
The Journal of Headache and Pain volume 16, Article number: A134 (2015)
Introduction
Retrospective study of patients with chronic tension headache (CTH) and chronic migraine (CM).
Materials and methods
We evaluated a total of 8 patients with CTH and 8 patients with CM. All patients had a history of primary headache and had never undergone prophylactic therapy. The observation period lasted 90 days. Four CTH patients and 4 CM patients underwent only prophylactic therapy (amitriptyline 20 mg daily), the remaining 4 CTH and 4 CM prophylactic therapy and BFB training sessions. Assessment tools outcome measures were:
-
Headache diary to assess days per month with headache;
-
Analgesic consumption and/or triptans;
-
Score of the visual analogue pain scale (VAS);
-
SEMG parameter for patients who carried out BFB training.
Results
At the end of the 90 day observational period there was a significant improvement (reduction in headache days per month, in VAS score, in analgesic consumption and in SEMG parameter) in CTH and CM patients that had undergone both BFB training and prophylactic therapy when compared to the group of patients treated only with prophylactic therapy drug.
Discussion and conclusions
The overall data confirmed the efficacy of the BFB training in the prophylaxis of primary headaches, further supporting the benefits already possible with the therapy of only pharmacological prophylaxis (Table 1). The data also showed a clear dominance of efficacy, especially in the forms of chronic tension headache (Table 2).
Written informed consent to publication was obtained from the patient(s).
References
Nestoriuc Y, Martin A, Rief W, Andrasik F: Biofeedback treatment for headache: a comprehensive efficacy review. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2008, 33 (3): 125-140. 10.1007/s10484-008-9060-3.
Holroyd KA, Penzien DB: Pharmacological versus non-pharmacological prophylaxis of recurrent migraine headache: a meta-analytic review of clinical trials. Pain. 1990, 42 (1): 1-13. 10.1016/0304-3959(90)91085-W.
Andrasik F: Biofeedback in headache: an overview of approaches and evidence. Cleve Clin J Med. 2010, 77 (Suppl 3): S72-S76.
Nestoriuc Y, Rief W, Martin A: Meta-analysis of biofeedback for tension-type headache: efficacy, specificity, and treatment moderators. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2008, 76 (3): 379-396.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Ciccone, B., Balzano, L. & D'Otolo, G. O006. Efficacy of prophylactic therapy in chronic primary headache with use of biofeedback. J Headache Pain 16 (Suppl 1), A134 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1129-2377-16-S1-A134
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1129-2377-16-S1-A134