Blanchard, Frank Andrasik Biofeedback and Relaxation Training With Three Kinds of Headache: Treatment Effects and Their Prediction

Description

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology Copyright 1982 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 1982, Vol. 50, No. 4, 562-575 0022-006X/82/5004-0562$00.75After a 4-week baseline period during which daily ratings of headache activity were made and all participants took several psychological tests, 91 patients with chronic headache (33 tension, 30 migraine, and 28 combined tension and migraine) were given a 10-session relaxation-training regimen. Patients who did not show substantial reductions in headache activity from the relaxation therapy were given a 12-session regimen of biofeedback (thermal biofeedback for vascular headaches, frontal electromyograph biofeedback for tension headaches). Relaxation therapy alone led to significant improvement for all three headache groups, with a trend for the tension headache group to respond the most favorably. Biofeedback therapy led to further significant reduction in headache activity for all who received it, with a trend for combined migraine and tension headache patients to respond the most favorably. Overall, 73% of tension headache patients and 52% of vascular headache patients were much improved. Multiple regression analyses revealed that approximately 32% of the variance in end-of-treatment headache diary scores could be predicted after relaxation and that 44% of the variance after biofeedback could be predicted using standard psychological tests. Moreover, over 72% of each headache group could be correctly classified as successful or not successful using the same tests in discriminant function analyses.