AUTOGENIC TRAINING AND COGNITIVE SELF-HYPNOSIS FOR THE TREATMENT OF RECURRENT HEADACHES IN 3 DIFFERENT SUBJECT GROUPS

The aims of this study were to (a) investigate the efficacy of autogen ic training (AT) and cognitive self-hypnosis training (CSH) for the tr eatment of chronic headaches in comparison with a waiting-list control (WLC) condition, (b) investigate the influence of subject recruitment on treatment outcome and (c) explore whether the level of hypnotizabi lity is related to therapy outcome. Three different subjects groups (g roup 1, patients (n = 58) who were referred by a neurological outpatie nt clinic; group 2, members (n = 48) of the community who responded to an advertisement in a newspaper; and group 3, students (n = 40) who r esponded to an advertisement in a university newspaper) were allocated at random to a therapy or WLC condition. During treatment, there was a significant reduction in the Headache Index scores of the subjects i n contrast with the controls. At post-treatment and follow-up almost n o significant differences were observed between the 2 treatment condit ions or the 3 referral sources regarding the Headache Index, psycholog ical distress (SCL-90) scores and medication use. Follow-up measuremen ts indicated that therapeutic improvement was maintained. In both trea tment conditions, the high-hypnotizable subjects achieved a greater re duction in headache pain at post-treatment and follow-up than did the low-hypnotizable subjects. It is concluded that a relatively simple an d highly structured relaxation technique for the treatment of chronic headache subjects may be preferable to more complex cognitive hypnothe rapeutic procedures, irrespective of the source of recruitment. The le vel of hypnotic susceptibility seems to be a subject characteristic wh ich is associated with a more favourable outcome in subjects treated w ith AT or CSH.