Stress Management for Chronic Headaches

Wayne State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Headaches

Treatments: Behavioral: Anger Awareness and Expression; Behavioral: Relaxation Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00956969

WSU0000001

Details and patient eligibility

About

This interventional, randomized controlled study seeks to test the effects of a novel emotional awareness and expression intervention against relaxation training or no intervention for college students with chronic headaches. These two interventions are conceptually quite distinct, as the former seeks to activate and process anger, whereas the latter, more commonly used technique, seeks to suppress or avoid it.

Enrollment: 147 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Undergraduate students at Wayne State University who have chronic headaches

Exclusion criteria

• Insufficiently frequent headaches
• Uninterested in engaging in a stress management intervention
• Headaches appear due to substance use or head trauma

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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147 participants in 3 patient groups

Anger awareness and expression

Experimental group

Description:

Training for anger awareness and expression

Treatment:

Behavioral: Anger Awareness and Expression

Relaxation Training

Active Comparator group

Description:

Teach patients relaxation training

Treatment:

Behavioral: Relaxation Training

No-treatment control

No Intervention group

Description:

Assessment only control condition