NCT01775852

Brief Behavioral Intervention for Comorbid Migraine and Depression

Brief, Behavioral Intervention of ACT & Illness Management for Comorbid Migraine and Depression

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 45 (actual)
• Sponsor: Lilian N. Dindo · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this research study is to examine whether a one-day group workshop, integrating principles from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Migraine Education, will result in improvements in depressive symptoms and functioning impairment in patients with comorbid migraine and depression.

Detailed description

Migraine affects approximately 35 million US residents (Bigal \& Lipton, 2009) and is associated with excruciating headache and marked functional impairment. Epidemiological and clinical research has shown that people with migraine suffer from psychiatric disorders at a disproportionately higher rate than individuals without. Depression, in particular, is 3-5 times more common in migraine patients than in non-migraineurs. The comorbidity of depression and migraine is a major health concern as it results in poorer prognosis, remission rate, and response to treatment. In addition, an increase in the severity of migraine is associated with a parallel rise in the severity and treatment resistance of comorbid depression. Recent research in behavioral medicine suggests that the pain experience per se does not necessarily lead to depression or impairment. Instead, it is the preoccupation with avoiding aversive stimuli associated with pain (i.e., activities, places, movements) that results in depression and disability (e.g., McCracken et al., 2005). Therefore, given that patients with migraine and/or depression exhibit more avoidance behaviors and lower activity levels than healthy controls (e.g., Stronks et al., 2004), an intervention aimed at optimizing willingness and acceptance and minimizing behavioral avoidance may be beneficial at improving both their depression and migraine and, consequently, their daily functioning. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically based behavioral therapy that incorporates acceptance and mindfulness strategies with behavioral change strategies. ACT (in group and in individual settings) is effective in treating psychiatric disorders commonly associated with migraine, including depression, anxiety, and stress (e.g., Hayes, 2001) as well as chronic illnesses like pain and diabetes (Dahl et al, 2004; Gregg et al., 2006). Importantly, ACT resulted in positive long-term outcomes even when presented in brief form. For example, a two-day ACT workshop, in a group setting, led to improvements in depression and distress experienced by parents of children diagnosed with autism and these gains were retained 3 months later. Parents also exhibited a reduction in avoidance behaviors (Blackledge \& Hayes, 2006).

Conditions

• Migraine
• Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	ACT-IM	1 hour discussion about migraine management (IM) and 5 hours of group therapy based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). IM covers symptoms and triggers for worsening of migraine symptoms, how to use migraine medications, medication overuse headache, etc. The ACT intervention includes: 1) Behavioral Change Training and; 2) Mindfulness and Acceptance Training emphasizing new ways of managing troubling thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.

Timeline

• Start date: 2010-08-01
• Primary completion: 2012-05-01
• Completion: 2013-08-01
• First posted: 2013-01-25
• Last updated: 2018-02-22
• Results posted: 2015-09-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States