Headaches: Psychological Management

Kenneth A. Holroyd

Recurrent headaches are prevalent and are associated with substantial individual and societal burden. Approximately 18% of women and 6% of men (e.g., 28 million individuals in the United States; Lipton, Hamelsky, & Stewart, 2001) experience migraine. Approximately 36% of women and 42% of men experienced a tension-type headache in the past year, with 2.8% of women and 1.4% of men experiencing tensiontype headaches more than 15 days per month. Missed workdays and impaired work function resulting from migraine cost employers about $13 billion a year, and direct medical costs run about $1 billion per year. Because tension-type headaches are more prevalent than migraine, they are associated with greater societal costs even though they are associated with less individual disability. As the frequency or severity of either migraine or tension-type headaches increases, the impact of headaches on functioning increases. Consequently, a relatively a small portion (< 50%) of individuals with frequent ...

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