Trial reportAnnals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine2013
Effects of anger awareness and expression training versus relaxation training on headaches: a randomized trial.
Trial report in Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- [Anger-related interventions for treatment of chronic pain : A systematic review].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2026Pooled it
- Psychological intervention in patients with central sensitization syndromes and comorbid psychosocial trauma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- From research to clinical practice: a systematic review of the implementation of psychological interventions for chronic headache in adults.BMC health services research · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Efficacy of psychological treatment for headache disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The journal of headache and pain · 2019Pooled it
- Online Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Emotion Dysregulation in People With Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- A life-stress, emotional awareness, and expression interview for primary care patients with medically unexplained symptoms: A randomized controlled trial.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2018Trial
- Emotional awareness and expression training improves irritable bowel syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Ambivalence over emotional expression and perceived social constraints as moderators of relaxation training and emotional awareness and expression training for irritable bowel syndrome.General hospital psychiatryTrial
- Patient Perspectives on the Process and Outcome of Group Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for Chronic Pain.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2026Article
- Distinct multidimensional anger profiles predict current and long-term chronic pain outcomes.The journal of pain · 2026Article
- The Importance of Including Psychophysiological Methods in Psychotherapy.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2025Review
- Alternative Treatments for Emotional Experiencing and Processing in People with Migraine or Tension-Type Headache: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview: Examining Interview Content and Patient Experiences in Two Medical Samples.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2023Article
- Psychological Approaches for Migraine Management.Anesthesiology clinics · 2023Review
- Determining Profiles of Pain-Specific and General Emotion Regulation Skills and Their Relation to 12-Month Outcomes Among People With Chronic Pain.The journal of pain · 2023Article
- The Longitudinal Relationship Between Emotion Regulation and Pain-Related Outcomes: Results From a Large, Online Prospective Study.The journal of pain · 2022Article
- Emotions matter: The role of emotional approach coping in chronic pain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2020Article
- State and trait anger and its expression in cluster headache compared with migraine: a cross-sectional study.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
background and purposeStress contributes to headaches, and effective interventions for headaches routinely include relaxation training (RT) to directly reduce negative emotions and arousal. Yet, suppressing negative emotions, particularly anger, appears to augment pain, and experimental studies suggest that expressing anger may reduce pain. Therefore, we developed and tested anger awareness and expression training (AAET) on people with headaches.
methodsYoung adults with headaches (N = 147) were randomized to AAET, RT, or a wait-list control. We assessed affect during sessions, and process and outcome variables at baseline and 4 weeks after treatment.
resultsOn process measures, both interventions increased self-efficacy to manage headaches, but only AAET reduced alexithymia and increased emotional processing and assertiveness. Yet, both interventions were equally effective at improving headache outcomes relative to controls.
conclusionsEnhancing anger awareness and expression may improve chronic headaches, although not more than RT. Researchers should study which patients are most likely to benefit from an emotional expression or emotional reduction approach to chronic pain.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.