Predicting differential response to EMG biofeedback and relaxation training: the role of cognitive structure

Analyzed treatment outcome data for 102 headache patients who had been assigned randomly to receive either EMG biofeedback (N = 70) or relaxation training (N = 32). It was hypothesized that a measure of cognitive structure would differentially predict success at the two training tasks and that patients high in cognitive structure would derive more benefit from the more structured relaxation task and less benefit from the biofeedback task. This hypothesis was confirmed (p less than .01). The analysis also demonstrated that relaxation training was significantly more effective than biofeedback (p less than .05) and that mixed headache patients improved significantly less (p less than .05) than either migraine or muscle-contraction headache patients.