Placebo-Controlled Evaluation of Abbreviated Progressive Muscle Relaxation and of Relaxation Combined With Cognitive Therapy in the Treatment of Tension Headache

Sixty-six tension headache patients were randomly assigned to one of four conditions for 8 weeks: (a) progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) alone; (b) PMR plus cognitive therapy (PMR + Cog); (c) pseudomeditation, a credible attention-placebo control; or (d) continued headache monitoring. A comparison...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 1990-04, Vol.58 (2), p.210-215
Main Authors: Blanchard, Edward B, Appelbaum, Kenneth A, Radnitz, Cynthia L, Michultka, Denise, Morrill, Belinda, Kirsch, Cynthia, Hillhouse, Joel, Evans, Donald D, Guarnieri, Patricia, Attanasio, Virginia, Andrasik, Frank, Jaccard, James, Dentinger, Mark P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - methods
Cognitive Therapy
Combined Modality Therapy
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Headache - therapy
Headaches
Health care
Human
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Monitoring
Muscle Contraction
Muscle Contraction Headache
Muscle Relaxation
Placebo
Progressive Relaxation Therapy
Psychology
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Therapy
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Sixty-six tension headache patients were randomly assigned to one of four conditions for 8 weeks: (a) progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) alone; (b) PMR plus cognitive therapy (PMR + Cog); (c) pseudomeditation, a credible attention-placebo control; or (d) continued headache monitoring. A comparison of overall headache activity (headache index), derived from a daily headache diary, for 4 weeks before treatment to 4 weeks after treatment, revealed that active treatment (PMR and PMR + Cog) was superior to either control condition. Moreover, level of headache medication consumption decreased significantly for the active treatment groups. Although headache-index comparisons of the two active treatments showed no advantage for adding cognitive therapy to PMR, a measure of clinically significant change showed a trend for PMR + Cog to be superior to PMR alone.
ISSN:0022-006X
1939-2117
DOI:10.1037/0022-006X.58.2.210