Cephalalgiaphobia is fear of

headache A headache, also known as cephalalgia, is the symptom of pain in the face, head, or neck. It can occur as a migraine, tension-type headache, or cluster headache. There is an increased risk of Depression (mood), depression in those with severe ...

s or getting a headache. Cephalalgia is a Latin-based term for a headache, cephalic meaning head, and algia meaning pain. Harvey Featherstone introduced this

phobia A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected ...

in the mid-1980s as a

fear Fear is an unpleasant emotion that arises in response to perception, perceived dangers or threats. Fear causes physiological and psychological changes. It may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the ...

of having headache or

migraine Migraine (, ) is a complex neurological disorder characterized by episodes of moderate-to-severe headache, most often unilateral and generally associated with nausea, and light and sound sensitivity. Other characterizing symptoms may includ ...

pain during a pain-free period. Individuals with this phobia often have a history of frequent migraines. Additionally, those with cephalalgiaphobia tend to overuse

analgesic An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic, antalgic, pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in s ...

medication as a result of their fear. To avoid a future headache or migraine, the individual will preemptively intake analgesic

medication Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to medical diagnosis, diagnose, cure, treat, or preventive medicine, prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmaco ...

to improve their headache. Doctors often do not prescribe pain medications but rather

psychiatric medication A psychiatric or psychotropic medication is a psychoactive drug taken to exert an effect on the chemical makeup of the brain and nervous system. Thus, these medications are used to treat mental illnesses. These medications are typically made of ...

s as a treatment for the

. Non-pharmacological treatments using

acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...

therapy have been shown to help reduce the fear of headache pain. __TOC__

Prevalence

The prevalence of cephalagiaphobia is not well known since there are few reported cases for

statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying probability distribution.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of ...

. Individuals would likely be unaware that their medication use is a phobic response. ''Cephalalgiaphobia: a possible specific phobia of illness'' reports a study of 12 patients which found a particular avoidance behavior among these individuals related to having chronic migraine attacks. Their research found a prevalence rate of cephalagiaphobia within their

population study Population study is an interdisciplinary field of scientific study that uses various statistical methods and models to analyse, determine, address, and predict population challenges and trends from data collected through various data collection me ...

to be 60%. The subjects of this study met

diagnostic criteria Medical diagnosis (abbreviated Dx, Dx, or Ds) is the process of determining which disease or condition explains a person's symptoms and signs. It is most often referred to as a diagnosis with the medical context being implicit. The information r ...

for having a specific phobia based on the

DSM-IV The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...

, even if it did not relate specifically to cephalagiaphobia.

Treatments

Known treatments for this phobia include medications prescribed to people who have

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

, depression, and for other phobias; they include

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions. SSRIs primarily work by blo ...

tricyclic antidepressant Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) are a class of medications that are used primarily as antidepressants. TCAs were discovered in the early 1950s and were marketed later in the decade. They are named after their chemical structure, which contains ...

benzodiazepine Benzodiazepines (BZD, BDZ, BZs), colloquially known as "benzos", are a class of central nervous system (CNS) depressant, depressant drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. They are prescribed t ...

s, and various types of

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

. Non-medication treatments for headaches include acupuncture, which has been shown to reduce the fear of headache pain. "Acupuncture use for the treatment of headache prior to neurological referral" discusses the positive benefits on how acupuncture helps to relieve headache symptoms from patients that were studied.

References

{{reflist Headaches Phobias

Prevalence

Treatments

See also

References