[Chronic headache and abuse of phenacetin (author's transl)]

70% of all patients who abuse phenacetin have headache. The nephrological aspects are reported of 240 patients who were phenacetin-dependent and in an average of 19 years had consumed an average of 6 kg - up to 25 compound powders daily. The degree of renal damage depends principally on the duration and regularity of ingestion of analgesics, and less on the total quantity. One fifth of the patients were already in a condition in which a fatal outcome was inevitable when they were admitted to hospital.