Exploring Behavioral Approaches in Migraine Management: Elizabeth Seng, PhD

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

"If we can identify ways that people with migraine can improve or change their diet, their exercise, their sleep, their stress management, that's great. At the same time, it's even more than that because we're also identifying the mechanisms of migraine management that may be able to be translated into new drugs or new devices."

In the clinical practice and patient management of migraine, recognizing and understanding the impact of behaviors is critical to having effective treatment strategies for patients. Research shows that there are many aspects of managing migraines that revolve around the patients' choices of behavior, including utilizing treatments to navigating their appointments and decision-making for medications or devices.¹ However, the effect of these behaviors often goes recognized by clinicians and the patients themselves, which leads to missed opportunities for improving health outcomes.

Elizabeth K. Seng, PhD, associate professor, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, and associate professor, department of neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, gave the Seymour Solomon Award Lecture at the 2023 AHS Annual Meeting, held June 15-18, in Austin, Texas. The lecture, titled "All Migraine Management is Behavior," was structured in that the first third covered all types of behaviors that go into routine care for medical management. In the middle and final section, she talked about lifestyle and how society interacts with patients' behavior.

Following the lecture, Seng sat down with NeurologyLive® to provide an overview of the different topics that were discussed in the lecture. She talked about how recognizing the behavioral component of routine migraine management helps address the challenges faced by many patients. Seng spoke about the ways that lifestyle modifications can complement pharmacologic treatments and potentially offer nonpharmacologic options for migraine relief. In addition, she shared some of the implications of understanding the interplay between society, behavior, and migraine management in developing more effective treatment approaches.

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REFERENCES
1. Seng EK. Seymour Solomon Award Lecture: All Migraine Management is Behavior. Presented at: 2023 AHS Annual Meeting; June 15-18; Austin, TX.