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

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.