Responding With Evidence and Access for Childhood Headaches

Migraine is the second most disabling disease in the world. Research has primarily focused on treating migraine in adults; however, approximately 10% of children and adolescents have migraine, suggesting that up to 7 million youth are impacted in the United States alone. Given that the majority of youth have migraine symptoms that persist into adulthood, there is a critical need to identify and improve access to the most effective preventive migraine treatments for this population as a means of reducing the long-term healthcare burden and functional impairment of this illness. This comparative effectiveness study will test CBT while taking a clinically-prescribed, pill-based prevention therapy (amitriptyline) to CBT alone. Participants will be involved in the study for approximately 28 weeks, with the first 4 weeks being a baseline period and the next 8 weeks involving six telehealth CBT sessions for both study groups (CBT while taking a clinically-prescribed pill-based prevention therapy \[amitriptyline\] compared to CBT alone), and dose titration of clinically-prescribed medication (amitriptyline) for the CBT + clinically-prescribed, pill-based prevention therapy (amitriptyline) group. During the remaining 16 weeks the participants will maintain the dose of medication (in the CBT + clinically-prescribed, pill-based prevention therapy (amitriptyline) group) and attend "booster" CBT sessions held three times over 4 months.