[Psychotherapy and mental health in chronic headache]

Pain can be seen to originate from 3 sources: the anatomic way between stimulus and reaction; the autonomous nerve system; personality (with all its facettes and determinants). Psychotherapy (including its action in psychohygiene); we do not split up here according to "schools". For differential indication it seems more important to see the main ways how psychotherapy works: verbalisation, the hypnoid switch and other methods acting via the body, sociodynamics, presentation, behavioristic methods including biofeedback. All these methods to be used in mutual overlapping and combination. Different ways of psychotherapeutic action may be effective specifically and specially on different components of pains as stated above. Moreover we emphasize an integrative setting of therapy comprising but all possible therapeutic methods like medication, physiotherapy, etc. besides psychotherapy. Only with such a complex setting the multidimensional complex of headache can be treated in the optimal way.