Management of Chronic Daily Headache and Psychiatric Co-Morbidities by Lifestyle Modification: Participatory Action Research Combining New Communication Media.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle modification has a significant role in chronic daily headache (CDH) management. Participatory action research (PAR) can play an important role in managing chronic medical conditions. However, it has been scarcely used in CDH management. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to empower patients with CDH to modify their lifestyle in order to reduce both their headache and related psychiatric co-morbidities in a multidisciplinary headache clinic at Baqiyatallah hospital, Tehran, IR Iran. METHODS: In the PAR plan, 37 patients (27 females) diagnosed with CDH were selected using purposeful sampling. Along with face-to-face group sessions, all available communication means such as phone calls, emails, short message system (SMS), and social media (Telegram) were used to facilitate the process. Questionnaires of health promotion lifestyle profile (HPLPІІ), visual analog scale (VAS), and depression-anxiety-stress scale (DASS21) were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Mean age of the patients was 38.33 (± 9.7) years. Both "general pain" and "the worst imaginable pain" reduced (mean of reduction: 2.56 ± 2.7 and 2.3 ± 2.9, respectively, P < 0.001). > 50% of pain reduction occurred in "the worst imaginable pain" category (-1.45 ± 2.02, P < 0.001) and mean VAS score reduced to 5.20 (± 2.3) compared to the start of the study (7.50 ± 1.9, P < 0.001). Mean DASS-21 score also reduced significantly for depression (P < 0.016), anxiety (P < 0.026), and stress (P < 0.008). HPLPІІ score significantly improved (118.17 ± 14.8 vs. 160.83 ± 16.4, P < 0.001) and the highest increase was seen in the subscale of "stress management" (17.73 ± 2.8 vs. 25.53 ± 3.9, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The empowering PAR plan combined with new communication tools helped the CDH patients better handle their lifestyle, reduce their headache, and lower their symptoms. Further studies with better use of currently available communication tools and social media are recommended for action research to be more applicable.

Psychiatric Comorbidities and Environmental Triggers in Patients with Chronic Daily Headache: A Lifestyle Study.

Objective: Patients with chronic daily headache (CDH) suffer from several significant psychiatric comorbidities and have unhealthy lifestyle. We aimed at studying psychiatric comorbidities, environmental triggers, lifestyle factors, and intensity of CDH in patients referred by the department of neurology from 2011 to 2014. Method: Through medical and psychiatric interviews and using 0 to 10 visual analogue scale (VAS), we assessed patients with CDH, using a checklist, to elicit psychiatric comorbidities, intensity of CDH, environmental factors, and lifestyle derangement. Results: We interviewed 413 (age 16-80 years, mean 40 +/- 14.0) out of 548 patients; 312 (75.5%) were married, and 282 (68.1%) were female. Environmental triggers (374, 90.6%) were the most common cause of CDH, while 214 (51.8%) had no compliance to recommended nutrition. Exercise avoidance (201, 48.7%) was the less prevalent lifestyle factor. Of the patients, 372 (90.1%) were stressed and 162 (39.2%) had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which were the most and less prevalent psychiatric comorbidities, respectively. Intensity of pain was moderate to severe (mean score = 7.1+/- 1.9), while females reported higher VAS scores (p<0.02). Patients with previous history of psychotherapy reported higher score of VAS (p<0.001). Those patients living with a person suffering from head pain reported more VAS score (p<0.003). Conclusion: Notable psychiatric comorbidities were found in patients with CDH, many of which are modifiable such as environmental triggers and unhealthy lifestyle. In heavily populated cities, these factors may double the burden of the CDH by precipitating new or exacerbating previous psychiatric comorbidities. We, thus, suggest conducting more studies on this subject.

Quality assessment of randomized control trials applied psychotherapy for chronic pains in iran: a systematic review of domestic trials.

CONTEXT: Keeping in mind the burden of psychotherapy can play a crucial role concerning chronic pain (CP). Psychotherapy techniques are widely used to relief Chronic Pain (CP) worldwide. Appling psychotherapy needs to consider both individual and popular cultures. In addition to international requirements; nation-wide legitimacy should be regarded too. Psychological methods have provided a lot of articles in Iran, but they were neglected by the reviewers because the documents only have abstracts in English. The current study aimed to assess all Farsi Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) addressing psychotherapy to relieve chronic pains. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Six nation-wide medical databases were investigated in 2012 using the keyword chronic pain in the Abstracts, systematically. Appling PICO question format (patient problem or population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes) all the interventional studies were reviewed for eligibility. Retrieving full text (in Farsi) and making the articles indistinguishable, two native reviewers assessed the quality of the articles independently using Jadad scale. RESULTS: Inclusion criteria met 1542 abstracts. After refining and excluding, seventeen experimental studies were retrieved and evaluated. Mean quality score of Jadad was 1.53 ± 1.37 (median = 1.0). Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) was the dominant approach (11 out of 17) and the majority (6 out of 17 studies) of the treated cases was Low Back Pain (LBP). Patient-therapist gender adjustment has clearly reported in most of the studies, based on the requirements. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive Behavior Therapy was more effective than the other psychotherapy approaches relieving chronic pain in the studies. Well-designed studies and comprehensive clarification of the studies demonstrating groups, intervention, follow-up and drop outs can improve the quality of the RCTs.