Does Relaxation Treatment Have Differential Effects on Migraine and Tension‐type Headache in Adolescents?

Abstract

The present study evaluated the effects of relaxation treatment in 36 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (mean +/- SD, 15.4 +/- 1.55 years) suffering from migraine or migraine and tension-type headache as compared with a waiting-list condition group. The subjects rated various characteristics of migraine and tension-type headache in a diary. Significant reductions were found for total headache sum (P <.05) and intensity scores of total headache activity (P <.05) as well as for migraine intensity (P <.05) for subjects treated with relaxation as compared with those in the waiting-list condition group. However, no significant differences between the two groups were found for tension-type headache. Fifty percent of the adolescents treated with relaxation training attained a clinically significant improvement, compared with 12% of those in the waiting-list condition. It is suggested that treatment goals for migraine and migraine occurring with tension-type headache might be different and that relaxation training also might benefit from focusing on specific aspects of the two headache types.