Through psychoeducation and the provision of behavioral interventions such as biofeedback, CBT, and relaxation, either alone or in combination with pharmacotherapy, mental health professionals play a critical role in helping headache sufferers...
Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) February 02, 2016
HealthForumOnline (HFO), a nationally-approved (APA, ASWB, NBCC) provider of online continuing education (CE) for psychologists, social workers, counselors, and other allied healthcare professionals, announces recent updates to our popular online CE course, A Review of Behavioral Medicine Treatments of Headaches.
This online education is important since headache disorders, including migraine and tension-type headache, are among the most prevalent disorders of mankind (1). Consider that the mean 1-year prevalence of all headaches (migraine, tension-type, medication overuse) is 46.5% among adults aged 18 to 65 years. Not surprisingly, headaches, considered common disorders of the nervous system, are widespread and often chronic medical conditions.
Appropriate treatment of headache disorders requires professional training of health providers, accurate diagnosis of the condition, and appropriate treatment with medications, behavioral modifications, and patient education (1). Unfortunately, the number one clinician-based barrier to proper treatment is a lack of knowledge among health-care providers regarding available treatments, used exclusively or in tandem. And since the general public views headache disorders as not necessarily serious because they are mostly episodic, non-life-threatening, and noncontagious, 50% of headache sufferers self-treat, with many unaware that safe, effective treatments even exist.
Patients and providers can both benefit from education on the nature of headache and its management. Through psychoeducation and the provision of behavioral interventions such as biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and relaxation, either alone or in combination with pharmacotherapy, mental health professionals play a critical role in helping headache sufferers reduce the frequency, intensity, and duration of headache (2).
Additionally, enhancing adherence to both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions can significantly reduce the personal and societal costs of headache (1). This online CE course from HFO presents a biopsychosocial overview of headache for practitioners including guidelines for clinical assessment, the basic elements of nonpharmacological behavioral medicine treatments, along with strategies to coordinate/integrate care with providers of pharmacological treatment to maximize patient care.
Psychologists, social workers, counselors, and other allied health professionals can choose from HFO’s over 20 categories of continuing education (CE) topics related to health psychology and behavioral medicine containing more than 100 online CE courses that are fast, convenient and cost-effective. All HFO CE courses and supporting materials are available online or as downloadable, transportable PDFs. Participants print their own CE certificates. Lastly, HFO routinely updates our online CE courses and enables customers to review these updates for free even after they have completed the CE activity and generated their CE certificate.
For more information on this course or a complete listing of titles in our online CE resource library, visit HealthForumOnline.com.
1. World Health Organization (2011). Atlas of Headache Disorders and Resources in the World 2011. Retrieved 1/30/16 from: http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/44571
2. Rathier, L., Buse, D., Nicholson, R., & Andrasik, F. (2012). Multidisciplinary approach to patients with migraine. In R. Lipton, M. Robbins, & B. Grosberg (Eds.), Principles of Headache: Primary and Secondary Headache Disorders, Neurology Practice Series. Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell.