title: The relationship between muscle discrimination ability and response to relaxation training in three kinds of headaches.
abstract: Accurate discrimination of changes in physiological response has been noted as an important element in learning to control that response. Using a magnitude production procedure involving forearm isometric contractions, it was found that the ability to discriminate muscle tension varied across headache groups, with the no-headache control group (r = .76) being most accurate, followed by the tension group (r = .68), the mixed tension and migraine group (r = .60), and finally the migraine group (r = .51). The most important result, however, was that muscle discrimination ability significantly predicted clinical outcome from treatment by relaxation training for tension headache subjects (r = .50) but did not predict outcome for migraine or mixed headache subjects.
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006261:Headache / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D012064:Relaxation Therapy