O049. Psychodynamic functioning in chronic headache patients: a short term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) study

Background Chronic headache (CM) occurs in 2-5% of the general population, often associated with medication-overuse headache (MOH), and comorbid psychiatric disorders [1,2]. Among therapeutic approaches, psychotherapeutic interventions may be effective, either alone or associated with pharmacological therapies. As we previously showed, the short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP), plus drug therapy, is more effective in patients with probable MOH to reduce headache symptoms and relapse rate than drug therapy alone [3]. Moreover, STPP alone is not inferior to valproate in CM, as preventive therapy [4]. According to psychodinamic diagnosis (BPI) some psychodynamic profiles with poor ability to process the emotional content or low mentalizing level (i.e., pre-psychosis, psychosis and borderline) could be at risk of developing chronic headaches. The aim of the present study was to identify the most frequent psychodynamic profiles in CM and test the effective of STPP in those patients with no record of psychiatric disorders.