The Effectiveness of Stress Reduction-Based CognitiveTherapy on Perceived Stress and Migraine Symptoms ofWomen Suffering from Migraine

Background: A headache is considered as one of the most common physicalcomplaints and a type of debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affectspeople s social, communicative and occupational tasks. Therefore, this studyaimed to investigate the effectiveness of stress reduction-based cognitivetherapy on perceived stress and migraine symptoms in women suffering frommigraine. The instruments used in this study included the Perceived StressQuestionnaire and Migraine Disability Assessment Questionnaire. Thepresent study data were analyzed using the covariance analysis.Methods: The present study adopted a pretest-posttest with control groupdesign. The statistical population of the present study included all patientssuffering from migraine who went to the medical centers in Tehran in 2017.In this study, convenient sampling and random assignments were used. Infact, amongst the migraine patients, 30 patients were selected through aconvenient sampling method that were then randomly assigned toexperimental and control groups. The experimental group received anintervention in a three-month period in ten 90-minute sessions, whereas thecontrol group did not receive this intervention during the research process.The patients were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups.Results: The results of data analysis showed that stress reduction-basedcognitive therapy was effective on perceived stress and migraine symptomsin women suffering from migraine (P-value < 0.001), that is to say, thistreatment can reduce perceived stress and migraine symptoms in womensuffering from migraineConclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded thatcognitive therapy based on stress reduction can be used as an effectivetreatment to reduce stress and migraine symptoms in women with migraineAs the study findings revealed, it can be concluded that cognitive therapybased on stress reduction can be used as an effective treatment to reducestress and migraine symptoms for women suffering from migraine.