Manipulation for Headache Patients: A Brief Introduction of a Novel Technique

Frogley HR, Wallace HIChiropractic Technique 1998 Feb; 10(1): 11-8

Background: Alterations in the cervical articulations are believed to be associated with headaches. The upper cervical vertebrae become fixed in normal motion by elevated cervical spinal processes resulting from kyphotic posture. From experience, the principal author (HRF) observed that patients with headaches note diminished frequency and intensity of those headaches when the second cervical vertebra was adjusted from a cephalic to caudal line of drive.

Objective: To point out the kinematic changes in the cervical spine and the headache relief after chiropractic adjustments. Five patients of chronic headache were relieved of headaches after spinal correction. Pain intensity and frequency of headache were measured with Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and a journal recording the daily total hours of headache suffering.

Design: A case series of five subjects with a history of chronic headaches was selected for this study. Patients must have had a recurrent history of headaches for at least 6 months to have been considered chronic. A complete physical and history was taken for each subject, including a cervical X-ray series with video fluoroscopic (VF) sagittal viewing. Both the VAS and hourly journal of daily headaches were recorded weekly for this study.

Results: Each subject received between 13 and 30 chiropractic adjustments over a period of 12-14 wk. There were apparent significant changes in intersegmental ROM as determined by flexion and extension measurements and reduction in both the severity by VAS and duration by the journal of daily headache hours.

Conclusion: The manipulation described in this paper may be useful for reducing pain intensity and frequency in patients with chronic headache caused by cervical fixation.

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