By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Stress is a known trigger for headaches, and mindfulness is a known combatant against stress. Several studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can curb stress responses” – Mandy Oaklander
The most common medical ailment is headaches. They affect about 16.5% of the population of the U.S., approximately 45 million Americans each year. Over eight million seek out medical attention for headaches each year. The most common type of headache is the tension headache. It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of the population suffer from tension headaches at least some time in their lives, about 69% of males and 88% of females. They come in two categories. Episodic headaches appear occasionally, while chronic headaches occur more than 15 times per month. Headaches are associated with personal and societal burdens of pain, disability, damaged quality of life and financial cost.
Tension headaches are generally treated with over the counter analgesics. Opiates, or narcotics, are rarely used because of their side effects and potential for dependency. To prevent tension headaches antidepressants or muscle relaxers are sometimes prescribed. Some individuals learn to employ a non-drug method to prevent or reduce tension headaches by learning what causes the headaches and trying to avoid those triggers. Finally, recently it has been shown that mindfulness techniques are generally helpful with coping with pain and specifically can be effective for headache relief. These include Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Hence, it makes sense to further investigate the relationship of MBSR with stress reduction and tension headache relief.
In today’s Research News article “Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on perceived stress and psychological health in patients with tension headache”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4755092/
Omidi and colleagues randomly assigned tension headache sufferers to either a treatment as usual (TAU) group, treated with antidepressant medication and clinical management, or an MBSR group which received TAU plus 8-weeks of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. They found that the MBSR group had significantly lower headache pain and increased mindfulness, while the treatment as usual group had no significant change in either.
These results are impressive and demonstrate that MBSR training may be an effective treatment for tension headache when combined with treatment as usual. Because MBSR contains three primary components; body scan, meditation, and yoga, it is not possible to discern which component or which combination of components were responsible for the improvement in headache pain. It is also not possible to discern if MBSR might be effective alone without the associated treatment as usual.
MBSR is structured to reduce stress and has been empirically shown to significantly reduce both the physiological and psychological responses to stress. Since tension headaches are primarily produced by stress and migraine headaches are frequently triggered by stress, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the stress reduction contributed to the effectiveness of MBSR for chronic headaches. Mindfulness training, by focusing attention on the present moment has also been shown to reduce worry and catastrophizing. Pain is increased by worry about the pain and the expectation of greater pain in the future. So, reducing worry and catastrophizing should reduce headache pain. In addition, negative emotions are associated with the onset of headaches. Mindfulness has been shown to increase positive emotions and decrease negative ones. Finally, mindfulness has been shown to change how pain is processed in the brain reducing the intensity of pain signals in the nervous system.
Regardless of the mechanism, it is clear that MBSR is a safe and effective treatment for tension headaches. So, improve tension headaches with mindfulness.
“In the pain studies, people with chronic pain such as headaches, back pain, neck pain and fibromyalgia who participated in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic reported a dramatic reduction in the average level of pain during the eight-week training period and for at least four years following the treatment.” – Mindful Living
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
Study Summary
Omidi, A., & Zargar, F. (2015). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on perceived stress and psychological health in patients with tension headache. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences : The Official Journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 20(11), 1058–1063. http://doi.org/10.4103/1735-1995.172816
Abstract
Background: Programs for improving health status of patients with illness related to pain, such as headache, are often still in their infancy. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a new psychotherapy that appears to be effective in treating chronic pain and stress. This study evaluated efficacy of MBSR in treatment of perceived stress and mental health of client who has tension headache.
Materials and Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial. Sixty patients with tension type headache according to the International Headache Classification Subcommittee were randomly assigned to the Treatment As Usual (TAU) group or experimental group (MBSR). The MBSR group received eight weekly classmates with 12-min sessions. The sessions were based on MBSR protocol. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were administered in the pre- and posttreatment period and at 3 months follow-up for both the groups.
Results: The mean of total score of the BSI (global severity index; GSI) in MBSR group was 1.63 ± 0.56 before the intervention that was significantly reduced to 0.73 ± 0.46 and 0.93 ± 0.34 after the intervention and at the follow-up sessions, respectively (P < 0.001). In addition, the MBSR group showed lower scores in perceived stress in comparison with the control group at posttest evaluation. The mean of perceived stress before the intervention was 16.96 ± 2.53 and was changed to 12.7 ± 2.69 and 13.5 ± 2.33 after the intervention and at the follow-up sessions, respectively (P < 0.001). On the other hand, the mean of GSI in the TAU group was 1.77 ± 0.50 at pretest that was significantly reduced to 1.59 ± 0.52 and 1.78 ± 0.47 at posttest and follow-up, respectively (P < 0.001). Also, the mean of perceived stress in the TAU group at pretest was 15.9 ± 2.86 and that was changed to 16.13 ± 2.44 and 15.76 ± 2.22 at posttest and follow-up, respectively (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: MBSR could reduce stress and improve general mental health in patients with tension headache.