Behavioral Treatments for Post-Traumatic Headache

AbstractPurpose of ReviewPost-traumatic headache (PTH) is a common headache type after traumatic brain injury (TBI). There are no FDA approved medications for PTH, and it is unknown how medications can affect the brain ’s ability to recover from TBI. Thus, we sought to examine the biopsychosocial factors that influence PTH and the non-pharmacologic treatments studied for headache treatment. We also sought to determine if there is literature examining whether the non-pharmacologic treatments influence the biopsyc hosocial factors. The non-pharmacologic treatments assessed included cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation therapy (PMR), acupuncture, and physical therapy (PT).Recent FindingsFactors associated with prognosis in PTH may include the following: severity of TBI, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, other psychiatric comorbidities, sociocultural and psychosocial factors, litigation, base rate misattribution, expectation as etiology, and chronic pain. There are few high quality studies on the non-pharmacologic treatments for PTH. Thermal and EMG biofeedback appear to have been examined the most followed by CBT. Studies did not have secondary outcomes examining the psychosocial factors related to PTH.SummaryMost of the behavioral studies involved a multi-modality intervention limiting the ability to assess the individual non-pharmacologic interventions we sought to study. There were very few randomized clinical trials evaluatin...
Source: Current Pain and Headache Reports - Category: Neurology Source Type: research