A personalized approach to the treatment of chronic tension-type headache: quality of life of patients

Objective : to evaluate the quality of life in a personalized approach to the treatment of chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) in comparison with a standard treatment protocol. Material and methods . The study involved 61 patients with CTTH. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. The first (main) group consisted of patients (n=30) who received a personalized approach with a psychotherapist contributing to the treatment. The comparison group consisted of patients (n=31) who were treated according to a standard protocol with counselling and observation by a neurologist. Pain intensity was assessed using the visual analogue pain scale (VAS). The SF-36 questionnaire was used to assess quality of life. Differences between the groups were analyzed by assessing individual changes in eight different domains of the SF-36 questionnaire for each patient. Results. In the main group, parameters characterizing the physical (pain intensity) and emotional experience of the pain (mental health, social functioning, life activity; p<0.05) decreased after 6 months of treatment when a personalized approach to the treatment of CTTH was applied, compared to the control group (with a standard patient management protocol). Conclusion. The personalized approach showed an improvement of the quality of life of patients with CTTH compared with the standard protocol, allowing us to recommend it for a wider application in clinical practice.