Osteopathy may reduce tension headache frequency

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Osteopathic treatments can help reduce the frequency, but not the intensity, of tension-type headache, new findings hint.

People who received the treatments and performed relaxation exercises had more headache-free days than those who only did the relaxation exercises, Dr. Rosemary E. Anderson of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute in Canada and Dr. Caryn Seniscal of the Canadian College of Osteopathy, also in Toronto, report.

Osteopathy is a branch of medicine that considers the structure and function of the body to be interrelated, and the body to be capable of regulating and healing itself.

Osteopathic physicians perform manipulations to treat complaints like headache and low back pain with the goal of restoring healthy blood flow, releasing muscle tension, and calming the nerves.

In the US, doctors of osteopathy are fully accredited physicians equivalent to MDs.

To investigate the effectiveness of osteopathy for tension headache, Anderson and Seniscal randomized 29 tension headache sufferers to three osteopathic treatments along with relaxation exercises performed every day at home, or the relaxation exercises only.

People who received the osteopathic treatments had significantly more headache-free days than those in the control group in the weeks following treatment.

Based on headache diary ratings, patients in the osteopathic treatment group showed a 57.5 percent improvement, compared to an improvement of 15.6 percent for the control group.

However, the intensity of headaches did not improve in the osteopathic treatment group.

The researchers conclude that osteopathy with relaxation is better than relaxation alone in reducing headache frequency among tension headache sufferers.

SOURCE: Headache, September 2006.