Structure of Dominant Somatic Dysfunctions in Patients with Tension-type Headache

Abstract

Ntroduction. Treatment of tension-type headache (TTH) presents a complex problem. The modern approach consists in the primary use of drug therapy. At the same time, insuffi cient attention is paid to non-drug treatment methods, including osteopathy.Goal of research - the study aims to identify the somatic dysfunctions that accompany TTH and to analyze their relationship to other objective and subjective signs of the disease. Materials and methods. The study included 30 people (ages 21-27 years old), including 16 patients with episodic TTH, and 14 patients with chronic TTH. The authors used the results of clinical and neurological examination, clinical osteopathic examination, X-ray analysis of the cervical spine, MRI of the brain, visual analogue scale for pain.Results. The osteopathic diagnostics detected the following dominant somatic dysfunctions: patients with episodic TTH presented with dysfunctions in areas of the dura mater, the head and neck, the global rhythmogenic alteration of cranial rhythmic impulse; patients with chronic TTH presented with dysfunctions of head, global rhythmogenic alteration of cranial rhythmic impulse, global neurodynamic disorder (psychoviscerosomatic).Conclusions. TTH patients present with somatic dysfunctions that can appear at different levels in the body. In the case of episodic TTH, the majority of dysfunctions are regional in nature (81 %), whereas in the case of chronic TTH most of the dysfunctions are related to the global level (79 %). The study determined no correlation between subjective descriptive characteristics of pain, localization of pain, and predisposing factors, which are indicated by patients and detected by dominant somatic dysfunctions.