"[This] is the book I have been hoping would be written. It is comprehensive, scientifically rigorous, and skillfully written … biology and psychology are interwoven to provide a comprehensive and sophisticated history, overview, and analysis of the field." – Kenneth Holroyd, Ph.D., Ohio University
"It is certainly a book that I would want to have on my bookshelf and one that I would recommend to colleagues and assign to students…existing headache professionals could indeed learn from this book." – Frank Andrasik, Ph.D., University of West Florida
"This book adds an intensity and comprehensiveness that is not duplicated in any current text." – Paul N. Duckro, Ph.D., Saint Louis University School of Medicine
"From diagnostic criteria to evaluation to treatment, this volume is a compendium of current knowledge about headache. Written in a clear style, the book features topical and name indexes, a glossary, and an extensive reference list. Summing up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above in the health care field, especially practitioners." – J.D. Campbell in Choice
"Students in psychology, health sciences, counselling, psychotherapy or medicine can use this book as a medical and psychological primer in pain management. It succinctly discusses and analyses recent and historical research and integrates the findings […] Borkum covers all the major forms of chronic benign headache and concisely brings together the ever-expanding studies of psychology and medicine." - Ian Clancy, The Psychologist
"[This] is the book I have been hoping would be written. It is comprehensive, scientifically rigorous, and skillfully written … biology and psychology are interwoven to provide a comprehensive and sophisticated history, overview, and analysis of the field." – Kenneth Holroyd, Ph.D., Ohio University
"It is certainly a book that I would want to have on my bookshelf and one that I would recommend to colleagues and assign to students…existing headache professionals could indeed learn from this book." – Frank Andrasik, Ph.D., University of West Florida
"This book adds an intensity and comprehensiveness that is not duplicated in any current text." – Paul N. Duckro, Ph.D., Saint Louis University School of Medicine
"From diagnostic criteria to evaluation to treatment, this volume is a compendium of current knowledge about headache. Written in a clear style, the book features topical and name indexes, a glossary, and an extensive reference list. Summing up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above in the health care field, especially practitioners." – J.D. Campbell in Choice
"Students in psychology, health sciences, counselling, psychotherapy or medicine can use this book as a medical and psychological primer in pain management. It succinctly discusses and analyses recent and historical research and integrates the findings […] Borkum covers all the major forms of chronic benign headache and concisely brings together the ever-expanding studies of psychology and medicine." - Ian Clancy, The Psychologist
Reviewer: Christopher J Graver, PhD, ABPP-CN(Madigan Healthcare System)
Description: Headaches are a common manifestation of head injury, but also dominate the symptom landscape in normal individuals. They can range from a nuisance to disabling pain, and yet many are untreated. For those that are treated, medication is often the first step and yet just as often has little efficacy. This book takes a look at both the medical and psychological aspects of headaches to fully understand the phenomenon.
Purpose: This book is intended to provide an integrated framework for understanding headaches that includes both medical and psychological perspectives, stretching from the etiology of headaches to their treatment.
Audience: The audience includes a wide variety of clinicians, including psychologists, physicians, neuroscientists, and students of these disciplines. The author has 15 years' experience working with patients with chronic pain and headaches, but there do not appear to be any research accomplishments in the area of headaches.
Features: A very useful table of headache nosology that begins the book helps to organize and clarify the different types of headaches. This is followed with a chapter on the neurophysiology of pain, which is tied into topics such as cognitive processing and pain modulation. The third chapter continues this line of thinking with a review of psychological variables involved in chronic pain. From there, the different types of headaches are explored in more depth, including the factors that contribute to them, psychophysiology, and implications for behavioral treatment. A detailed chapter looks at headache medications, including comparison of various types of pharmacological interventions. Later chapters address the behavioral health aspects of headache treatment. The inclusion of chapter on assessment is especially helpful for readers new to headache treatment with specific, practical suggestions for the intake session. Both outcomes and process research in behavioral health are reviewed. There is also an insightful chapter on patient selection and treatment matching. The chapters are well laid out with clear subheadings. Uniquely, each begins with a short story, case study, or eloquent introduction to set the stage for the rest of the chapter. Furthermore, many tables, figures, and illustrations complement the text. The references are pertinent and fairly current, and are accompanied by a comprehensive index.
Assessment: This is a highly recommended book. Most everything a beginning health psychologist would need to know about headaches can be found here. Additionally, it is a great book to broaden the perspective of providers who view headaches as a purely medical condition and are reliant on medications with sometimes poor efficacy. This book will help readers to consider the copious factors contributing to headache syndromes and the gamut of treatment options to further enhance outcomes for patients.
