An exercise program that helps retrain the muscles of the head, neck and shoulder area reduces the frequency, intensity and duration of tension headaches, with effects lasting six months after the exercise program has ended, research shows.

“The exercises are easy to perform, take little time, and are effective,” Dr. H. van Ettekoven of the Center for Physiotherapy and Manual Therapy in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, and Dr. C. Lucas of the University of Amsterdam note in their report.

Tension-type headaches are extremely common, affecting 86 percent of women and 63 percent of men every year, but just 15 percent of sufferers seek medical treatment, the researchers write. Many people treat such headaches with over-the-counter pain relievers, putting themselves at risk for experiencing “rebound” headaches when the medication is stopped, they add.

Ettekoven and Lucas studied whether a craniocervical training program (CTP), in which a person performs a series of exercises to restore effective control of the muscles in the head, neck and shoulders, could be helpful against tension headaches.

They randomized 81 tension headache sufferers to six weeks of physiotherapy including massage and other techniques (the control group), or to the same physiotherapy program plus CTP (the experimental group).

People in the craniocervical training group underwent 15 minutes of instruction on the technique, which involves flexing the head and neck with light resistance supplied by a latex band. They were then told to perform the exercises at home for 10 minutes twice daily.

During the six-week program, headache frequency, intensity and duration fell in both groups, with no significant between-group differences. However, headaches had worsened among people in the control group by six months after the end of the exercise program.

At the end of the exercise program, 52 percent of people in the control group experienced a 50 percent or more reduction in headache frequency, but just 35 percent had this amount of reduction in headache frequency six months later.

In the CTP group, however, 82 percent saw a reduction of 50 percent or more in headache frequency at the end of the exercise program, and 85 percent saw this reduction six months later.

Six months after the program, people in the CTP group were taking 65 percent less medication than they were before the study, while the control group showed no reduction in painkiller intake.

The authors say longer-term studies of CTP as a stand-alone technique for treating tension headache are warranted.

SOURCE: Cephalalgia, August 2006.