Paul R Martin

• DPhil
• Griffith University

Background Photophobia, the aberrantly increased sensitivity to light, is a common symptom in migraine patients and light discomfort is frequently found as a trigger for migraine attacks. In behavioral studies, planned exposure to light was found to reduce headache in migraine patients with photophobia, potentially by increasing habituation to this...

Migraine, a common and disabling neurological disorder, is among the top reasons for outpatient visits to general neurologists. In addition to pharmacotherapy, lifestyle interventions are a mainstay of treatment. High-quality daily diary studies and intervention studies indicate intraindividual variations in the associations between lifestyle facto...

Objective: To investigate the relationship between self-reported triggers and the occurrence of migraine attacks using a smartphone application. Background: One of several issues around the study of migraine attack triggers is that limited available evidence supports whether self-reported triggers can induce a headache on a particular subject....

Sleep problems are amongst the most common triggers of migraine and non-migraine primary headache. Despite a majority of sleep problems being psychological in nature, there is a paucity of quantitative research on the psychological factors involved in sleep-related headaches. This is the first study to examine the link between maladaptive sleep bel...

This article begins by presenting basic information about headaches—the headache classification system that is used for diagnosis, the disorders that are frequently comorbid with headaches, the prevalence of headaches, and the impact of headaches on the individual, their family and society. The article proceeds to discuss the triggers of headaches...

Objective: Traditionally, the standard advice to individuals suffering from migraine and tension-type headache was that the best way to prevent headaches is to avoid the triggers. This advice has been challenged in recent years and the Trigger Avoidance Model of Headache has been proposed, which suggests that one pathway to developing a headache d...

Objectives Sleep dysfunction and headaches are common and disabling conditions which are frequently comorbid with psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, there is a growing body of literature linking sleep dysfunction to the frequency and intensity of headaches. This study retrospectively examined the prevalence of insomnia and headache frequency, and...

Objective: To examine the factor structure of the Headache Triggers Sensitivity and Avoidance Questionnaire (HTSAQ) and its German version (HTSAQ-G), in order to identify potential different types of triggers. Furthermore, a short form of the questionnaire was developed. Background: The HTSAQ includes 24 of the most commonly reported headache tr...

The triggers of primary headaches have considerable significance for our understanding and management of headache and migraine. Triggers explain the variance in headaches – why they occur when they do. Trigger management is generally viewed as an important component of a comprehensive treatment approach for headaches. Historically, however, trigger...

Disordered sleep, poor sleep quality, and insufficient or excessive sleep duration are known triggers of primary and secondary headaches. Given this, it is plausible that improving sleep will subsequently reduce headache activity. We report a systematic review of the literature, examining studies utilising psychological sleep interventions for the...

Background: The landmark findings of the Mother-Infant Transaction Program (MITP) showing improved neurodevelopment of preterm infants following parent-sensitivity training delivered in the neonatal intensive care unit have not been consistently replicated. This study evaluated an MITP-type intervention in terms of neurobehavioural development to...

Headaches are the most common manifestation of pain in childhood and adolescence, with estimates indicating that as many as 75% of young people will have experienced a significant headache by the age of 15 years. Headache disorders have the potential to have a negative impact on the lives of children, spanning across their physical, academic, and s...

Objectives: (1) To replicate a study by Schutze, Rees, Preece, and Schutze (2010) on a headache sample, rather than a heterogeneous chronic pain sample, investigating whether level of mindfulness predicts key components in the fear-avoidance model of chronic pain (pain intensity, negative affect, pain catastrophizing, pain-related fear, pain hyper...

Background Evidence that sleep dysfunction can play a role in headaches has been well established. We have previously reported various sleep factors are correlates of headaches, particularly sleep quality [1]. Medication overuse headache develops when acute or symptomatic headache medications are used too frequently. Given commonly used medications...

Objective: To evaluate an e-diary developed for measuring headaches, triggers, and medication consumption, in terms of reliability and validity, and variables such as ease of use and participant compliance. Background: For many decades, behavioral treatment of headaches has been evaluated via participants completing paper diaries recording their...

Objectives Primary headache disorders affect a large proportion of the world's population, and sleep factors have been increasingly implicated in their aetiology. This study aimed to assess the relationships between a number of sleep factors, sleep duration, sleep quality, and chronotype, and migraine and non-migraine headache. The approach was mu...

Introduction: Sleep factors (such as insufficient sleep duration and poor sleep quality) have been implicated in triggering and perpetuating headache problems. Psychological interventions are effective at treating psychophysiological sleep complaints and so these interventions may also improve headaches. As such, a systematic review is required to...

Introduction: This is the protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. The two most common primary headache disorders, migraine and tension-type headache have a variety of triggers and perpetuating factors, and evidence continues to emerge of the role that sleep factors can play in these headache problems. As such, improving the sleep of hea...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the newly developed Headache Triggers Sensitivity and Avoidance Questionnaire (HTSAQ) designed to measure variables relating to the Trigger Avoidance Model of Headaches. Background: The Trigger Avoidance Model of Headaches proposes that one pathway to developing...

This article argues for extending the International Classification of Headache Disorders to include information that goes beyond diagnosis. The obvious model is a multiaxial system as has been developed for other taxonomies. An axis for recording disability and impact on functioning, and an axis for recording the triggers of headache/migraine, are...

Aim: Headaches are among the most common neurological complaints worldwide, with varying types of headache disorders and triggers identified in the literature. Sleep and headaches have increasingly been researched in recent years as evidence continues to implicate properties of sleep in headache aetiology such as sleep duration and quality, chronot...

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological treatment versus active alternative treatment or no treatment in adults with migraine, using methods that allow comparison with reviews of psychological interventions for other painful conditions.

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological treatment versus active alternative treatment or no treatment in adults with migraine, using methods that allow comparison with reviews of psychological interventions for other painful conditions.

Objective Could a website be developed that would be more evidence‐based and lead to readers having more positive cognitions (locus of control, self‐efficacy) with respect to managing their headaches than the current websites? Method A new website was developed based on learning to cope with headache triggers rather than the traditional advice to...

This review begins with a discussion of the nature of stress and then presents the functional model of primary headache as a framework for conceptualizing the complex relationship between stress and headaches. Research is reviewed on stress as a trigger of headaches and how stress can play a role in the developmental and psychosocial context of hea...

Objective: To examine the incidence of headache symptoms consistent with migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) in children with anxiety disorders. Method: Parents of children with anxiety disorders (n=27) and children without anxiety disorders (n=36) completed a headache questionnaire based on the International Classification of Headache Diso...

Objective: Many studies in the literature examining sleep and headaches focus on individual elements of sleep. This study aimed to collect data on a number of important factors in the sleep-migraine relationship within the one sample. Method: 398 participants completed an online survey that administered instruments measuring headache intensity and...

Objective Three possibilities may explain headache and depression comorbidity: (a) headaches cause depression; (b) depression causes headaches; and (c) third variables cause both. Evidence supports all three possibilities. This study sought to examine which of these has the most support among a sample of people seeking psychological treatment.Metho...

Background: Many headache triggers have been identified in the literature, and one of the most commonly identified triggers is sleep dysfunction. Individually, headaches and sleep dysfunction are highly prevalent in Australia. Dysregulated sleep, and its associated symptoms occur in 20-35% of Australians. 1-year prevalence in Australia of experienc...

The traditional approach to headache trigger management is to advise avoidance of all triggers, but we have advocated an alternative approach called ‘Learning to Cope with Triggers’ (LCT), in which the objective is to desensitise headache sufferers to some triggers or to build up tolerance for the triggers, using exposure techniques. A recent publi...

Major depressive disorder is a significant mental illness that is highly likely to recur, particularly after three or more previous episodes. Increased mindfulness and decreased rumination have both been associated with decreased depressive relapse. The aim of this study was to investigate whether rumination mediates the relationship between mindfu...

Background: We have argued against the traditional approach of counselling avoidance of all triggers of headaches and migraine. Problems with this approach include the impossibility of avoiding all triggers and the high costs associated with trying to do so, and that avoidance could lead to reduced tolerance for the triggers. We have developed an...

This study was designed to evaluate the traditional advice to headache sufferers to avoid all triggers (‘Avoidance’), and a novel approach to trigger management (Learning to Cope with Triggers – ‘LCT’) that included graduated exposure to selected triggers to promote desensitization. Individuals (84F, 43M) with migraine and/or tension-type headache...

This article begins with a brief history of the emergence of health psychology, discussing the nature of heath psychology, and the crisis in health that drives the need for more health psychologists. It then proceeds to discuss training in health psychology in Australia at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. To provide a context for conside...

Objective: While mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has demonstrated efficacy in reducing depressive relapse/recurrence over 12-18 months, questions remain around effectiveness, longer-term outcomes, and suitability in combination with medication. The aim of this study was to investigate within a pragmatic study design the effectiveness of...

Depression is a common condition that typically has a relapsing course. Effective interventions targeting relapse have the potential to dramatically reduce the point prevalence of the condition. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a group-based intervention that has shown efficacy in reducing depressive relapse. While trials of MBCT to da...

To provide a context for discussing psychology going forward, this article will begin by briefly providing a historical and international context. It will then argue that establishing a database demonstrating the value of our treatments is not enough, and that we also need to promote what we can accomplish. The question will then be posed as to whe...

Where Has Psychology Contributed and Where Could It Contribute More?What Do Different Regions of the World Contribute to the Advancement of Psychology, and What Are the Problems with the Current Situation?What Organizations a re Contributing to International Psychology and What Do They Do?What More Could Be Done by International Psychology Organiza...

Product Information About The Product The IAAP Handbook of Applied Psychology, an up-to-date and authoritative reference, provides a critical overview of applied psychology from an international perspective. • Brings together articles by leading authorities from around the world • Provides the reader with a complete overview of the field and highli...

The discipline of clinical psychology has undergone exponential growth in the last two or three decades: The theoretical and empirical base has expanded; the narrow focus on assessment has been broadened to include treatment and prevention; and the area of application has widened from working within the field of psychiatry to cooperation with many...

Reported here are the results of a survey and subsequent follow-up which document the rapid development in the 1990s of doctoral-level training in clinical psychology in the United Kingdom and Australia. Over two thirds of institutions providing clinical training in these two countries now offer doctoral degrees, with others planning to follow shor...

The psychological impact of receiving hypothetical genetic risk information for breast cancer, with and without lifestyle information, was investigated. The psychological responses included in the study were drawn from three theories of behaviour change and included perceived risk, beliefs in health behaviours, motivations to change health behaviou...

Background: Much evidence has accumulated over the last three decades that low social support is related to both mental and physical health. Despite this large and convincing literature, reviewers have noted that there exists remarkably little evidence that social support can be increased by an appropriate intervention. This study reports on the de...

The literature on migraine triggers is reviewed, including the most common triggers, interactions between triggers, the research evidence related to the capacity of self-reported triggers to precipitate headaches, and the neurobiologic pathways by which triggers induce migraine attacks. An argument is developed against the standard advice to avoid...

The standard clinical advice for individuals who suffer from recurrent headaches is that the best way to prevent headaches is to avoid the triggers. This editorial challenges that advice from a number of perspectives. First, there is little empirical support for such advice. Second, cognate literatures in the fields of chronic pain, stress and anxi...

The standard clinical advice for individuals who suffer from recurrent headaches is that the best way to prevent headaches is to avoid the triggers. This review challenges that advice from a number of perspectives, including: that the advice is given in a theoretical vacuum; it is associated with practical problems; and it is not evidence-based. Th...

This study was designed to assess whether physiotherapy exercises administered for low back pain have the physiological effects that they purport to have (increase spinal mobility and muscle strength) and whether these effects are of clinical relevance (related to changes in pain and function). Thirty-six patients were allocated to three treatment...

Literature regarding screening behaviour in individuals with a family history of colorectal cancer was reviewed, in order to determine the prevalence of screening in this population and identify factors associated with screening participation. Four electronic databases were searched from 1994. Thirty papers met the inclusion criteria, including 3 c...

Sixty-four headache sufferers were allocated randomly to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), temporal pulse amplitude (TPA) biofeedback training, or waiting-list control. Fifty-one participants (14M/37F) completed the study, 30 with migraine and 21 with tension-type headache. Treatment consisted of 8, 1-hour sessions. CBT was highly effective, with...

This study investigated the relationship between length of exposure to a stressor and capacity of the stressor to elicit head pain. Some 127 participants, 93 of whom suffered from regular headaches, were randomly assigned to five experimental conditions, defined by length of exposure to a stressor. Participants attended a single laboratory session...

This study investigated how triggers acquire the capacity to precipitate headaches. Traditional clinical advice is that the best way to prevent headache/migraine is to avoid the triggers. Avoidance of anxiety-eliciting stimuli, however, results in sensitization to the stimuli, so is there a danger that avoidance of migraine/headache triggers result...

Can causal relationships be established between negative affect (NA) and headaches, and noise (N) and headaches? Do NA and N interact to cause headaches? Do NA and N cause headaches by means of the same or different physiological mechanisms? Are the answers to these questions a function of diagnostic status? A functional model of chronic headaches...

To critically review the research based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) stress and coping model, in respect to the coping of those caring for persons with dementia in the community, in an attempt to establish its implications for interventions aimed at improving caregiver adjustment. Published material on the coping of caregivers of persons with de...

A voluntary sample of 398 children, aged 8-12 years were interviewed at school, and their primary care-givers surveyed, to ascertain what interpersonal and family factors predicted children’s well-being. Future directions are suggested for developing interventions to suit populations at risk; using community resources to reduce the risk of parent a...

This study tested two contrasting theories of how trigger factors acquire the capacity to precipitate headaches. The sample consisted of 110 participants, of whom 48 suffered from regular headaches. Participants were exposed to a validated headache trigger factor for one of five exposure durations. The trigger used was "visual disturbance" (flicker...

Traditional clinical advice in the management of headaches is to avoid trigger factors. There is a danger, however, that avoidance of triggers results in a sensitisation process whereby tolerance for the triggers decreases, in a manner analogous to increments in anxiety arising from avoidance of anxiety-eliciting stimuli. Reported here are six sing...

This study sought to experimentally validate two reported precipitants of chronic headaches, namely, negative affect (anxiety, anger, depression) and visual disturbance (flicker, glare, eyestrain), and to investigate whether they triggered common or different physiological mechanisms. Twenty-two male and 68 female subjects (46 with migraine, 29 wit...

A case study is described to illustrate the need for vigilance in detecting drug-induced headache. A woman (“Jane”) volunteered for a headache research program, and assessment revealed a very high consumption of headache medication. Jane was taking an average of 21 tablets per day as well as receiving injections several times a week. The research s...

This study sought to experimentally validate 2 self-reported trigger factors of headaches, namely negative affect (anxiety, depression, and anger) and hunger, and to investigate whether these triggers activated the same or different physiological mechanisms. Students (38 women and 18 men) who had suffered from frequent headaches (migraine or tensio...

A case study is described to illustrate the need for vigilance in detecting drug-induced headache. A woman ('Jane') volunteered for a headache research program, and assessment revealed a very high consumption of headache medication. Jane was taking an average of 21 tablets per day as well as receiving injections several times a week. The research s...

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a cognitive–behavioral treatment program delivered in either clinic-based group format or home-based minimal-therapist-contact format for the treatment of 42 children (aged 10–12 yrs) with chronic headache (migraine, tension, or combined). Ss were assigned randomly to 3 conditions: clinic-based treatment (8...

SYNOPSIS The traditional approach to classifying headache based on symptoms and assumed mechanisms is criticized as having limited utility when applied to tension-type headache and migraine. The study reported here was designed to explore an alternative method of conceptualizing chronic headaches based on functional characteristics or controlling v...

SYNOPSIS A group of chronic headache sufferers (migraine and tension-type headache) was compared with agroup of nonheadache control subjects in terms of two domains of social support (social integration andfunctional support), perceived social support, sources of social support, and perceived stress. Headachesufferers and controls were not differen...

SYNOPSIS A group of chronic headache sufferers (migraine and tension‐type headache) was compared with twoindividually matched control groups of nonheadache subjects in terms of life event stress, and the stressmoderating factors of coping skills and social support. The headache group did not differ from the controlgroups on the measures of life eve...

The present study tested the hypothesis that involving the partners of headache sufferers in a group cognitive-behavioural stress-coping intervention for chronic headaches would enhance treatment outcome. A treatment program in which partners were involved (PI) was compared with a standard treatment program in which partners were not included (NPI)...

Psychophysiological investigations of tension headaches and migraines have produced inconsistent and inconclusive findings. The study reported here aimed to further explore headache mechanisms by repeating earlier research with two main variations. The first pertained to recording and analytic procedures: a different approach was taken to measuring...

The relative contribution of the instructions and the music to the effects of the Musical Mood Induction Procedure (MMIP) were investigated. Using an experimental procedure which minimised covert experimenter bias, subjects performed under both elation and depression mood inductions in one of four conditions: music present or absent by mood change...

In view of the association between chronic headaches and depression, this study compared a cognitive therapy package designed for depression with a relatively standard behavioural treatment package designed for headaches (self-management training), in terms of their effects on headaches and depressive symptoms. Fifty-five subjects suffering from ch...

Four complementary studies explored the current status of the scientist-practitioner model; the degree to which clinical psychologists engaged in research consumption, research activity, and publication; and attitudes to research and training. The results showed that the model still enjoys widespread support, but contrary to the model, most clinica...

Two studies investigated the relationship between headaches (migraine, tension and mixed) and mood. In the first, headache sufferers self-monitored mood and headaches. Results showed that headaches were associated with negative affect more or less equally on all moods measured (anxiety, hostility, depression, unsureness, tiredness and confusion), a...

SYNOPSIS This coded bibliography aims to include all behavioral headache research published to date. Four hundred and forty references have been found predominantly through Psychological Abstracts and the journal Headache. Each article has been coded according to seven variables which describe the subject sample, and thirteen variables which descri...

SYNOPSIS A recent study reported a very high headache prevalence rate for psychology undergraduate students attending a North American University. Reported here are the results of administering the same questionnaire to 711 students enrolled in the first year undergraduate psychology program at the University of Western Australia. The two studies p...

In Study 1, which examined 711 Australian undergraduates, Ss who suffered from more frequent headaches and headaches of higher intensity had significantly elevated Type A (coronary prone) scores. Study 2, examining 215 chronic headache sufferers (mean age 38.8 yrs), showed that the majority of Ss displayed the Type A behavior pattern. The 2 studies...

Headaches are a common problem, and psychological factors are widely acknowledged as playing a critical role in the development and maintenance of a high proportion of cases. This mini series consists of six contributions to the headache literature from researchers working in Australia. The papers focus on cycles in headache activity; behavioural p...

Trends in behaviour therapy are considered from the advent of cognitive behaviour modification to the more recently suggested emphases on affective and unconscious processes. The thrust towards integrating different schools of psychotherapy is also briefly reviewed. The gains and losses associated with the trends are discussed. Some suggestions for...

A treatment approach to severe, refractory obesity involving combining therapeutic starvation with behavioural management techniques was advocated. The potential of the approach was illustrated by the description of a patient who lost 53 lb in weight over a 14-month-period.

The literature on spasmodic torticollis is critically reviewed. The currently most popular etiological hypothesis characterizes torticollis as an extrapyramidal disorder, the symptoms of which are aggravated by stress, but there is no unequivocal evidence available to support this view. Psychological mechanisms have been suggested but not elaborate...

Comparison of six spasmodic torticollis patients with individually matched controls showed elevated sternomastoid EMG levels on both sides of the neck and restricted ability to rotate the head. The direction of abnormal neck posture or movements was consistently related to the side of more restricted movement, but not to the side of higher EMG. The...

It is clear that a number of behavioral treatments that do not involve biofeedback training are also effective against headaches. The evidence is strongest for relaxation training, which has been shown to be helpful in both tension headaches and migraines. Controlled group outcome studies have also demonstrated the value of transcendental meditatio...