Does Talk Therapy Help Migraine? What the Evidence Actually Shows

Behavioral and psychological treatment for migraine has real institutional backing — but it's worth being precise about what the evidence actually supports, rather than repeating a confident claim either direction.

What's genuinely well-established

The Headache Consortium — a multidisciplinary group that includes the American Headache Society — recommends cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for chronic migraine, citing effect sizes comparable to preventive medication, benefits that hold up over time, and essentially no side effects. That's a meaningful, mainstream clinical recommendation, not a fringe one.

What's more uncertain than that recommendation suggests