Background: A comprehensive, multi-modal rehabilitation that addresses both the physical and mental health aspects of headache disorders has the potential to give more effective relief and improve patients’ overall quality of life. Further studies are required to determine the most beneficial exercise modalities and incorporate them into a comprehensive treatment strategy for headache-related anxiety and depression.
Methodology: A multi-modal rehabilitation was administered for 8 weeks. Participants engaged in 45 minutes of supervised aerobic exercises three times/week. A dry needling session was performed for 30 minutes on the trigger points associated with neck pain, while massage was performed to reduce muscle tension in the head, neck and shoulder regions, lasting for 30 minutes.
Results: The outcome measures assessed at baseline revealed that the pain intensity as measured using VAS was 7.3±1.3, the value of headache impact test (HIT) was 55.3±1.4 and HADS-Anxiety and Depression was 16.32±1.56 and 15.35±1.47 respectively, that was significantly reduced to 3.26±1.25 (VAS), 35.6±1.21 (HIT) and 10.32±1.52 (HAD-A) and 9.56±1.2 (HAD-D) respectively after 8 week of multi-modal rehabilitation.
Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated that a multi-modal rehabilitation intervention, comprising aerobic exercises, dry needling, and massage therapy, significantly reduces headache-related pain intensity, anxiety and depression in patients with primary headache disorders.
Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Exercise, Headaches.