Non-pharmacological treatment of headaches--why?

Headache and mood disorders co-occur at significant rates. Two psychological techniques of proven effectiveness in treating headache are biofeedback and relaxation training. For treating the mood disorders that accompany chronic headache, cognitive-behavioral and pharmacological therapies are highly effective both individually and combined. The present article discusses the importance of treating anxiety-spectrum disorders as well as pain when treating headache, and of manipulating factors known to influence the probability of a patient's developing chronic pain and disability.