Psychological therapies help reduce headache and non-headache pain in children and adolescents

Commentary on: Eccleston C, Palermo TM, Williams AC, et al.. Psychological therapies for the management of chronic and recurrent pain in children and adolescents. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2014;5:CD003968. Context Chronic and recurrent pain, especially in the head, abdomen and limbs affects up to 30% of children and adolescents.1 Pain can be severely disabling, disrupting school and social activities and if left untreated, may extend towards adulthood. Increasing evidence shows that psychological factors are pivotal in the transition from acute to chronic disabling pain. As a result, psychological interventions have been developed to modify the emotional, cognitive and behavioural processes that are considered to maintain pain, disability and distress. Psychological interventions initially designed for adults have been modified and applied to paediatric patients. These include behavioural (eg, relaxation training, biofeedback, operant management) and cognitive treatments (eg, cognitive coping skills training, guided imagery, stress management), or...
Source: Evidence-Based Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Palliative care, Clinical trials (epidemiology), Headache (including migraine), Pain (neurology), Stroke, Child and adolescent psychiatry, Complementary medicine Therapeutics Source Type: research