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Cognitive control of tension headache

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Abstract

This study assessed the effectiveness of a cognitively oriented stress coping training program designed to provide skills for coping with daily life stresses as a treatment for tension headache. Thirty-one community residents with chronic tension headaches were assigned to stress-coping training (N =10),to biofeedback training (N =11),or to a waiting-list control group (N =10).Treatment procedures were accompanied by counterdemand instructions designed to minimize the influence of implicit demands for improved performance. Although only the biofeedback training group showed reductions in frontalis electromyographic activity, only the stress-coping training group showed substantial improvement on daily recordings of headache. These results were interpreted as providing support for a cognitive approach to the treatment of tension headache. Questions concerning the part played by nonspecific treatment factors in biofeedback training were also raised.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, 45701, Athens, Ohio, USA

    Kenneth A. Holroyd, Frank Andrasik & Teresa Westbrook

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  1. Kenneth A. Holroyd
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  2. Frank Andrasik
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  3. Teresa Westbrook
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Additional information

Appreciation is expressed to Dale Mattmiller, M.D., Jerry Noble, and Cheryl Richards, who assisted with the carrying out of this experiment. Grants from the Ohio University Research Committee and NIMH (1-R03-MH28939-1) to the senior author provided support for this study.

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Holroyd, K.A., Andrasik, F. & Westbrook, T. Cognitive control of tension headache. Cogn Ther Res 1, 121–133 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173633

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