Thought protocols before and after a psychological headache treatment withimagery strategies

Cognitive changes accompanying a headache treatment with imagery strategies were investigated, 15 female and 6 male headache sufferers with migraine ( 6), tension-type headache (7) or both (8) wrote down their thoughts during 1 - 5 headache episodes, kept a headache diary and filled in several pain q uestionnaires before and after treatment. After treatment there were signif icantly more positive and less negative thoughts. Pain frequency, duration, medication intake intensity, catastrophizing and helplessness were reduced , self-efficacy was enhanced. Changes of thought protocol variables were co rrelated with treatment effects. The role of cognitive changes in the psych ological treatment of chronic headache is discussed.