Abstract
Objective: To investigate the efficacy of transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (TCBT) on headache and the accompanying symptoms in patients suffering from migraine
Background: Psychological interventions are shown to be effective in migraine, but not utilized routinely yet due to the problems of feasibility and practicability. Specific features of TCBT significantly increase the potential for its utilization as a psychological intervention in the healthcare system. However, no studies have evaluated the efficacy of TCBT on adult population with migraine, hitherto.
Design/Methods: This study was conducted on 40 migraine patients aged 20–50 years. We randomly assigned patients to two groups of intervention, receiving 10 sessions of TCBT, and control. Days with headache, headache severity, migraine-related disability and effects on daily life, number of pain-relivers taken for headache, depression, and anxiety were assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention (three-month follow-up), and one-month after TCBT termination (four-month follow-up).
Results: Thirty-five patients suffering moderate to severe migraine completed the study (16 and 19 in TCBT and control groups, respectively). TCBT improved all measured items between study time-points (p<0.05) in the intervention group, while such an improvement was not observed in the control group. Between group comparisons revealed superiority of TCBT group compared to the control group in most measured items at three- and four-month follow-ups (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Ten sessions of TCBT improved migraine severity, associated disability, anxiety, and depression in patients, with persistent effects after one month of therapy termination. TCBT is an affordable, practical, and feasible intervention to be utilized for migraine patients.
Disclosure: Negin Badihian has nothing to disclose. Mrs. Soleimanian Boroujeni has nothing to disclose. Dr. Badihian has nothing to disclose. Vahid Shaygannejad has nothing to disclose. Dr. Gorji has nothing to disclose.
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