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Medication overuse headache
1Department of Neurology, University of Essen, Germany. h.diener@uni-essen.de
Current Medical Research and Opinion
|December 5, 2002
Abstract:
The frequent use (>15 times/month) of medication for the treatment of acute migraine attacks may cause medication overuse headache. This kind of headache can be caused by the intake of a combination of analgesics, opioids, ergot alkaloids and triptans. The delay between first intake and these attacks is shortest for triptans (1-2 years), longer for ergots (3-5 years) and longest for analgesics (5-10 years). Treatment includes drug withdrawal followed by structured acute therapy and initiation of migraine prophylactic treatment.