![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Background:
Chronic daily headache (CDH), headache more than 15 days/month and for at least 3 months, is a disabling condition. Patients repeatedly seek both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. The patient's subjective description of symptoms and the professionals' objective clinical findings often differ. Intervention outcomes should therefore preferably include a self-reported description. The purpose of this clinical evaluation was to describe individual changes after 6-months of multimodal treatment for patients with treatment resistant CDH.
Methods:
All 16 consecutively included patients had been suffering from CDH for more than 3 years. The patients scored their headache frequency and intensity, sleeping quality, stress and physical activity levels and general wellbeing on 0–100 mm visual analogue scales (VAS). This was done at baseline and after 6-months treatment including education, varying physiotherapy techniques, self-training exercises and acupuncture.
Results:
The majority of patients reported individual positive changes after treatment for all six outcome variables. Significantly, more scores decreased from pre-treatment to post-treatment (Sign test). The questions about headache frequency and intensity had the highest number of patients reporting a ≥ 50% improvement.
Conclusion:
The patients in this clinical evaluation, experiencing their CDH as treatment resistant, reported positive changes after a 6-month period of individualised multimodal physiotherapy and acupuncture treatment. Our concept combine relevant treatments and seems to result in positive changes by reducing symptoms and enabling patients to use their own resources and abilities. However, the results apply only to this particular group of patients treated at our clinic.