Effective Headache Treatment: The Team Approach

Research results on treating benign recurring headaches has begun to demonstrate that a team approach is the most effective treatment and that the most important member of the team is the patient himself or herself. When a patient begins to understand the different types of head pain, the causes of head pain, the contributing factors to head pain, and the side effects of those treatments, they begin to gain a sense of control. The team approach promotes patient control through education, investigation, assessment and management.

• Education - How and why you continue to have headaches.
• Investigation - Looking at a wide range of variables and factors that cause pain.
• Assessment - Accurate measurements lead to better diagnosis and treatment options.
• Management - Learning effective methods of pain management is highly individualized.

In this TEAM APPROACH the patient is invited to become a team member by participating in a three-part educational series ot enhance awareness nd subsequent control over headaches. The other team members include the physician, the psychologist, and other medical stafff who use their skills to assess, diagnose, instruct, and assist the patient in developing the most appropriate regimen of therapeutic interventions.

In order to be effective member of the team you need to learn about pain in general; how the body and brain register pain; and how you respond to those pain-to-brain signals. This information is provided in the first of those three educational sessions.

In the second session you will learn about the different types of head pain. You will learn how to identify and quantify the types of headaches that you may experience. You will also learn about traditional and non-traditional treatments for those head pains.

In the third session you will learn more about investigation and assessment of head pain, but more importantly you will learn effective behavioral and live style methods available for control of head pain.

Instructors

The sessions are taught by Doctors Robert Doyle and Edward Kleitsch of Behavior Management Systems. They are psychologists who specialize in behavioral medicine and the psychophysiological treatment of medical disorders. They have extensive experience in the treatment of headaches and are well versed in both the physiology of head pain and the behavioral and pharmacological treatment of headache.

Location of Classes

The sessions will be conducted in the Conference Room of Neurology Associates, 8924 Kanis Road, Little Rock, Arkansas (lower level).

When

Thursday evenings starting at 5:30 PM and ending at 7:00 PM for three consecutive weeeks.