Physical therapy intervention for cervicogenic headache: an overview of systematic reviews

Abstract

Background and Objective: There are many systematic reviews that investigate the effectiveness of physical therapy (PT) interventions on cervicogenic headache (CGH) with inconclusive findings which is because of either the quantity or quality of the included studies. Thus the aim of this overview was to evaluate the evidence of various PT interventions on CGH from relevant systematic reviews.

Methods: We included systematic reviews based entirely on randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that were concerned with PT interventions and CGH. They were selected from PubMed and Web of Science databases in December, 2017. Quality of reviews was checked by Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews criteria (AMSTAR). Conclusions were generated from a narrative synthesis based on conclusions from reviews as well as individual original RCTs.

Results: Six systematic reviews (34 RCTs) were selected for this overview. Overall, the methodological quality was moderate to high. Evidence from reviews says that spinal manipulation therapy (n = 4), mobilisation (n = 2) and other conservative PT management (n = 2) were effective in the management of CGH.

Conclusion: Based on six moderate to high quality systematic reviews, it can be concluded that PT management particularly manipulation and mobilisation are effective in reducing pain and functional disability in patients having CGH.

Keywords:

• Cervicogenic headache
• manipulation
• manual therapy
• pain
• occipital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.