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The 2 to 3 percent of the population who suffer from painful chronic tension headaches are likely to be helped by a combination of tricyclic antidepressant medication and brief stress management therapy. A study of 203 patients by Ohio University researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that the combined treatment reduced the number of headaches by about half. Either the medication or the therapy alone helped some, but the combination was much more effective that either medication or therapy alone. The tricyclic tested was amytryptiline; tricyclic antidepressants don't cause the rebound in pain that is likely to occur when other pain medications are discontinued. As would be expected, amitriptyline produced results more quickly than stress management therapy, but the therapy helped people to stop taking the medication and continued to be effective after the therapy was discontinued. Last updated 12/19/03 |
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