This contact likely was key to the success of the behavioral therapy, said Cottrell, who noted that although stereotypes sometimes suggest teens have little to say to adults, teens in this study were eager to talk about their migraines.
"Most people who have headaches want to talk about them because they're used to no one listening to them," she said. "I didn't have any problems getting them to talk about their headaches. Some of the teen-agers didn?t do all the reading they were supposed to and in those cases, we talked about what they should have read over the phone so they were exposed to the information."
But for the most part, teens in the study were eager to learn to control their headaches, Cottrell said. The teens also responded favorably to biofeedback therapy, which, in this project, involved a small electronic thermometer that attached to a teen's finger to measure body temperature. Kids were taught how to increase the temperature in their fingers, a process that triggers blood vessels in the head to relax, lessening headache pain.
"Interestingly enough, it was a lot easier for the teen-agers to do the biofeedback than for adults," Cottrell said. "Maybe it was because it uses a computer and kids thought it was cool or maybe kids are more open-minded."
Kids' response to biofeedback is one of several things Cottrell hopes a larger study of migraines in teens will help her understand. She also wants to devise a plan that would help parents become more involved in the treatment of their kids' migraines and to design an instructional tool that would do a better job of keeping teens' attention.
"There has to be a way to get more parental involvement and support for the teen and a more enticing and attractive way to get the message to the teen-agers," Cottrell said. "Reading it in a book is too old-fashioned for young people."
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Contact: Kelli Whitlock
whitlock@ohio.edu
740-593-2868
Ohio University
18-Jun-2002