Kostiantyn Stepanchenko1
1) Ukraine
Among particular problems of therapy of children with tension-type headache (TTH) are following problems: age restrictions, individual intolerance, allergies, addiction to psychotropic drugs and analgesics. Therefore optional treatment is non-drug therapies, which include an efficient and pathophysiological method, and this is biofeedback therapy (BFBT).
Aim: Improving the efficiency of complex treatment of adolescents with TTH using HRV BFBT.
Methods: 60 adolescents (ages 13-18) were examined. Two groups were formed: an experimental group, which received drug and BFBT (40 pers.) and a control group, which received only the drug therapy (20 pers.). Reactive and personal anxiety, the level of depression, the intensity of pain, vegetative indicators (by spectral analysis of HRV) were assessed. Based on the analyses of HRV with automatic calculation of the individual program breathing BFBT was selected in order to regulate the psychophysiological state of the patient.
Results: In the group of BFBT there were 80,0% responders compared with 60,0% in the control group (p<0,05). As a result of the therapy 15,0% patients from experimental group did not suffer from any episodes of headaches any more (compared with 5,0% in the control group (p<0,05)).
In the experimental group several significant results were obtained: decrease in indicators of the reactive anxiety and depression (p<0,05) and increase in the total power spectrum (TP) and all of its components (HF, LF, VLF), (p<0,05).
The difference in treatment effects was obvious in catamnesis (6 months). Considering some indicators drug therapy combined with BFBT favorably differs from using only drug therapy on its own.
Conclusion: Pathogenetic therapy of tension-type headaches in adolescents in the form of HRV biofeedback therapy results in a significant decrease in the frequency, intensity of episodes of headache, associated symptoms (dizziness, drowsiness and general weakness), normalization of psycho-emotional as well as vegetative disorders.
