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The Effect of Group Emotional Schema Therapy on Cognitive Emotion Strategies in Women with Migraine Headaches: a Pilot Study

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Abstract

The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of emotional schema therapy (EST) on migraine severity and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. In this study, 16 women with migraine were randomly assigned to EST group (n = 8) and a waitlist control group (WLC; n = 8). Participants in the EST group received 12 sessions of group emotional schema therapy. Ahwaz Migraine Headache Questionnaire (AMQ) and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) were measured pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 1-month of follow-up. Results indicated that EST was more effective than WLC in reducing migraine severity at post-test and follow-up. In addition, participants in the treatment condition showed significant improvement in adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies at post-test and follow-up. Furthermore, as the results showed, time, group, and interaction did not reduce maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies significantly. Our results suggest that emotional schema therapy may be useful in alleviating migraine pains.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to the participants of the present study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education Sciences and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, 9177948974, Iran

    Sahar Shahsavani, Ali Mashhadi & Imanollah Bigdeli

Authors
  1. Sahar Shahsavani
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  2. Ali Mashhadi
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  3. Imanollah Bigdeli
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Contributions

All authors had substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and final approval of the version to be published.

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Correspondence to Ali Mashhadi.

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Research Ethics Committee of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad approved this study, and all participants signed a written informed consent.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Shahsavani, S., Mashhadi, A. & Bigdeli, I. The Effect of Group Emotional Schema Therapy on Cognitive Emotion Strategies in Women with Migraine Headaches: a Pilot Study. J Cogn Ther 13, 328–340 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41811-020-00073-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41811-020-00073-8

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