[Use of katadolon in the treatment of abuse headache]

Katadolon (flupirtine), an analgetic with neuroprotective and myorelaxing effect, has been used in the treatment of 16 patients (15 women, 1 man, mean age 38 +/- 6 years) with abuse headache. The diagnosis has been established in accordance with International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd Revision (2003). All the patients had episodic headache of tension in anamnesis. Chronic pain and significant tension of pericranial muscles have been registered before the treatment. Patients abused complex analgesics, mean amount of which was 24.5 +/- 6.1 during the period of 21.25 +/- 4 days per month. Monotherapy with katadolon was administered in dosage 100 mg 3 times a day during 1 month. The treatment resulted in significant reduction of frequency, duration and intensity of headache, with a 2-fold decrease in analgesics used. The tension of pericranial muscles decreased and threshold of pain as well as that of nociceptive flexor reflex increased. There was improvement of the patients' quality of life. The period of withdrawal from drug abuse was painless. An effect of treatment remained during 1 month after the withdrawal from the drug in 11 patients, 2 patients continued to receive katadolon.