Effects of Aerobic Exercise Within a Behavioral Treatment Program for Chronic Headaches

University of Mississippi

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Headaches

Treatments: Behavioral: Behavioral Treatment for Chronic Headache- Exercise Version

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01525303

2011-0044

Details and patient eligibility

About

This proposed study seeks to examine whether adding an aerobic exercise prescription to a behavioral treatment program for chronic headaches will improve headache frequency and intensity, headache-related disability, and mood. It is hypothesized that participants who receive the exercise prescription at the start of treatment will show greater gains than those who receive the prescription halfway through treatment. It is also predicted that participants who begin the exercise component halfway through treatment will demonstrate greater improvement in the second half of treatment compared to the first half.

Full description

Aerobic exercise has long been discussed as a potential treatment for chronic headaches, though research in this area has been somewhat limited. It is warranted to consider the effectiveness of aerobic exercise as part of a larger headache management intervention. Early research in this area suggests that including an exercise component in conjunction with other effective forms of headache management, such as progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, and stress management, is associated with improvement in number of days with a headache, headache pain intensity and mood. None of these studies have specifically analyzed the effectiveness of the aerobic exercise component, though Lemestra et al. (2002) noted that participants who continued with their exercise regimen had better overall outcomes three months after the intervention ended.

Given the high rates of obesity and the fact that many people do not meet the minimum daily requirement for exercise, it is worthwhile to investigate the additive effect of exercise to behavioral headache interventions.

Enrollment: 5 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 64 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of chronic headache (according to International Headache Association (IHA) guidelines) by research personnel
• Interested in receiving behavioral treatment for chronic headaches
• Engaged in less than 60 minutes/week of physical activity in the past 3 months
• Physically capable of engaging in a regular exercise routine
• Interested in in taking part in a regular exercise routine
• Regular internet access (at least once a week)

Exclusion criteria

• Males
• Unable to access internet at least once a week
• Currently engaging in regular exercise
• Not interested in participating in regular exercise
• Not capable of safely exercising
• Pregnant, nursing, or planning on becoming pregnant during the course of the study
• Does not meet IHA diagnostic criteria for chronic headache
• Not interested in behavioral headache treatment
• Diagnosis of Medication Overuse Headache, or headaches related to a physical or neurological disorder
• Cognitive or other forms of impairment that would decrease ability to fully engage in treatment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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5 participants in 2 patient groups

Exercise-Start (ES)

Experimental group

Description:

The ES group will receive standard behavioral treatment in the Self-Management Training Program for Chronic Headaches. In addition to this material, participants in this group will receive an exercise prescription for 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity at the beginning of Week 1. The exercise prescription will increase to 25 minutes in Week 2, and 30 minutes in Week 3. They are asked to maintain 30 minutes per day of exercise through Week 8. Participants choose the type of exercise, and have the option to break it up into 10-minute increments throughout the day.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Behavioral Treatment for Chronic Headache- Exercise Version

Exercise-Middle (EM)

Experimental group

Description:

The EM group will receive standard behavioral treatment in the Self-Management Training Program for Chronic Headaches.In addition to this material, participants in this group will receive an exercise prescription for 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity at the beginning of Week 5. The exercise prescription will increase to 25 minutes in Week 6, and 30 minutes in Week 7. They are asked to maintain 30 minutes per day of exercise through Week 8. Participants choose the type of exercise, and have the option to break it up into 10-minute increments throughout the day.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Behavioral Treatment for Chronic Headache- Exercise Version