Long-term follow-up of home-based behavioral management training provided by migraine patients

Background Behavioral migraine approaches are effective in reducing headache attacks. Availability of treatment might be increased by using migraine patients as trainers. Therefore, Mérelle and colleagues developed and evaluated a home-based behavioral management training (BMT) by lay trainers (1). The maintenance of effects at long-term follow-up is studied in the present study.


Method Measurements were taken pre-BMT (T0), post-BMT (T1), at six-month follow-up (T2), and at long-term follow-up, i.e. two to four years after BMT (T3). Data of 127 participants were analyzed with longitudinal multi-level analyses.


Results Short-term improvements in attack frequency and self-efficacy post-BMT were maintained at long-term follow-up (dT0–T3 = −.34 and dT0–T3 = .69, respectively). The level of internal control that increased during BMT decreased from post-BMT to long-term follow-up (dT0–T3 = .18). Quality of life and migraine-related disability improved gradually over time (dT0–T3 = .45 and dT0–T3 = −.26, respectively).


Conclusions Although the results should be interpreted with caution because of the lack of a follow-up control group and the inability to gather information about additional treatments patients may have received during the follow-up period, the findings suggest that lay BMT for migraine may be beneficial over the long term. If so, this could make migraine treatments more widely available.