Research: Future scanning

21 November 2005

Offering people suffering from regular headaches a brain scan may provide medical and financial benefits.

Chronic daily headache is a debilitating and difficult-to-treat condition. Dr Louise Howard at the Institute of Psychiatry and King’s College Hospital and colleagues have been investigating whether people suffering from chronic daily headache and anxiety are reassured by having a brain scan – or whether this increases their anxiety.

In a randomised controlled trial, individuals who were offered a scan were, after three months, less worried about a serious cause of their headaches (though this effect did not persist a year later).

However, although anxiety was only alleviated in the short term, cost savings for people with high levels of psychiatric morbidity were significant, because they used fewer medical resources after the scan. This suggests that scanning anxious individuals who suffer from daily headaches could help to reduce costs, as well as temporarily easing symptoms.

External links

• Howard L et al. Are investigations anxiolytic or anxiogenic? A randomised controlled trial of neuroimaging to provide reassurance in chronic daily headache. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005;76(11):1558–64.