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, ph ysical, or psychological therapies. However, a significant minority co ntinue to report debilitating headaches despite the use of these conve ntional therapies. An integrated, interdisciplinary approach combining these three individual components in a group treatment setting was of fered to patients who had failed previous therapy. The interdisciplina ry treatment resulted in over 70% of patients experiencing a 50% or be tter 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 sugg est 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 conventiona l therapies that use medical, physical, and psychological treatments i ndividually.