ACT Therapy for HF Migraine

Summary

The aim is to compare the effectiveness of a behavioral treatment, the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, provided as an add-on to the prophylactic treatment (treatment as usual-TaU) against TaU only on the reduction of monthly headaches frequency over 12 months in a sample of patients with high-frequency migraine without aura (i.e. reporting 9-14 days with headache per month in the previous three months). ACT will be provided in small groups (5-7 patients each) by specifically trained therapists. The ACT consists in 6 weekly sessions, 90 minutes each, and 2 supplementary "booster" sessions, at two and four weeks after the conclusion of the weekly session. The main focus of the six ACT session will be the following: 1) Creative helplessness: the problem of control; 2) Identifying values: introduction to Mindfulness; 3) Actions guided by values: working with thought; 4) Working with Acceptance and Willingness; 5) Committed Actions: self-as-context; 6) Integration: working with obstacles - wrap-up. The booster session starts with a mindfulness exercise, followed by a review of the contents covered across the ACT program. TaU will consist of education of patients, followed by pharmacological prophylaxis. Prophylaxis is prescribed based on patients' profile, such as previous failures, contraindications and so on by a neurologist with expertise in headache treatments and limited to Topiramate, Propanolol, Amytriptiline or Calcium channel blockers. The study will be a Phase II Trial; randomized, Open-Label; Multicenter study. Patients will be randomized 1:1 to the two groups: 64 patients (32 per group) will be enrolled to detect an absolute difference of at least 2 migraine days/month in the experimental group (assuming alfa 5%, power 95%, up to 15% loss to follow-up).

Timeline

Start

2018-03-15

Primary completion

2020-07-15

Completion

2022-12-31

Publications

• Background Andrasik F, Grazzi L, D'Amico D, Sansone E, Leonardi M, Raggi A, Salgado-Garcia F. Mindfulness and headache: A "new" old treatment, with new findings. Cephalalgia. 2016 Oct;36(12):1192-1205. doi: 10.1177/0333102416667023. Epub 2016 Oct 1.
• Background Giannini G, Zanigni S, Grimaldi D, Melotti R, Pierangeli G, Cortelli P, Cevoli S. Cephalalgiaphobia as a feature of high-frequency migraine: a pilot study. J Headache Pain. 2013 Jun 10;14(1):49. doi: 10.1186/1129-2377-14-49.
• Background Grazzi L, Sansone E, Raggi A, D'Amico D, De Giorgio A, Leonardi M, De Torres L, Salgado-Garcia F, Andrasik F. Mindfulness and pharmacological prophylaxis after withdrawal from medication overuse in patients with Chronic Migraine: an effectiveness trial with a one-year follow-up. J Headache Pain. 2017 Dec;18(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s10194-017-0728-z. Epub 2017 Feb 4.
• Background Hayes SC, Luoma JB, Bond FW, Masuda A, Lillis J. Acceptance and commitment therapy: model, processes and outcomes. Behav Res Ther. 2006 Jan;44(1):1-25. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006.
• Background Luciano JV, Guallar JA, Aguado J, Lopez-Del-Hoyo Y, Olivan B, Magallon R, Alda M, Serrano-Blanco A, Gili M, Garcia-Campayo J. Effectiveness of group acceptance and commitment therapy for fibromyalgia: a 6-month randomized controlled trial (EFFIGACT study). Pain. 2014 Apr;155(4):693-702. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2013.12.029. Epub 2013 Dec 28.

Drugs

Indications