Interdisciplinary outpatient group treatment of intractable headache.
Approximately 10% of adults suffer from severe or disabling headaches. For many patients, headaches are reduced with traditional medical, physical, or psychological therapies. However, a significant minority continue to report debilitating headaches despite the use of these conventional therapies. An integrated, interdisciplinary approach combining these three individual components in a group treatment setting was offered to patients who had failed previous therapy. The interdisciplinary treatment resulted in over 70% of patients experiencing a 50% or better reduction in headaches at follow-up of an average of 5.8 months. Overall, there was an average reduction in medication use at follow-up of 71%. The treated group reported significantly greater reduction in headache activity and medication consumption compared to a group that was referred to but did not receive group treatment. The results suggest that an interdisciplinary outpatient group treatment may provide a cost-effective and time-efficient treatment option for patients with a variety of recurring headaches, even if they have failed conventional therapies that use medical, physical, and psychological treatments individually.
Scharff
L
L
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pain Evaluation and Treatment Institute, PA 15213.
Marcus
D A
DA
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006261:Headache / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team; D016896:Treatment Outcome