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Cognitive-behavioral issues in the treatment and management of chronic daily headache

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Abstract

Chronic daily headache is a heterogeneous group of daily or near-daily headaches that afflicts close to 5% of the general population and accounts for close to 35% to 40% of patients at headache centers. First-line drug or cognitive-behavioral therapies administered alone have minimal impact on reducing the frequency or severity of headaches. However, combined drug and cognitive-behavioral therapy shows promise in providing the most benefit for this often intractable condition. Cognitive-behavioral therapies focus on preventing mild pain from becoming disabling pain, improving headacherelated disability, affective distress, and quality of life, and reducing overreliance on medication. For cognitive-behavioral therapies to be effective, it is important to address complicating factors, including medication overuse, psychiatric comorbidity, stress and poor coping, and sleep disturbance.

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  1. St. Vincent Rehabilitation Services, 3413 Cherry Street, 16508, Erie, PA, USA

    Gay L. Lipchik PhD & Justin M. Nash PhD

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  1. Gay L. Lipchik PhD
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  2. Justin M. Nash PhD
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Lipchik, G.L., Nash, J.M. Cognitive-behavioral issues in the treatment and management of chronic daily headache. Current Science Inc 6, 473–479 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-002-0066-x

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