What is the Status Quo of Patient-Centred Physiotherapy Management of People with Headache within a Biopsychosocial Model? – A Narrative Review

Purpose of Review: Patient-centred care (PCC) is deemed essential in the rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pain. Integrating such care within a biopsychosocial framework, enables to address all facets of the individual pain experience, and to manage the individual instead of the condition. This narrative review describes the status quo of PCC physiotherapy management of people with headache within a biopsychosocial model. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus were searched (update 07.05.2024). The search-query comprised terminology relating to “headache”, “patient-centred”, “biopsychosocial”, “physiotherapy”. Additional eligibility criteria were reviews, trials, cohort, case report, case–control studies in English, Dutch, French. Recent Findings: Gaps are exposed in patient-centred physiotherapy management of migraine, tension-type headache, and cervicogenic headache. While a biopsychosocial approach is advised to manage migraine and tension-type headache, its use in clinical practice is not reflected by the literature. A biopsychosocial approach is not advised in cervicogenic headache. Psychosocial-lifestyle interventions are mainly delivered by health-care providers other than physiotherapists. Additionally, psychologically-informed practice is barely introduced in physiotherapy headache management. Though, managing the social context within a biopsychosocial framework is advised, the implementation by physiotherapists is unclear. Comparable conclusions apply to PCC. Summary: PCC is recommended for the physiotherapy management of primary and secondary headache. Such recommendation remains however theoretical, not reaching clinical implementation. Yet, a shift from the traditional disease-centred model of care towards PCC is ongoing and should be continued in physiotherapy management. With this implementation, clinical and economical studies are needed to evaluate its effectiveness.