PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stewart J. Tepper
AU  - Deborah E. Tepper
TI  - Breaking the cycle of medication overuse headache
AID  - 10.3949/ccjm.77a.09147
DP  - 2010 Apr 01
TA  - Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
PG  - 236--242
VI  - 77
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.ccjm.org/content/77/4/236.short
4100  - http://www.ccjm.org/content/77/4/236.full
SO  - Cleve Clin J Med2010 Apr 01; 77
AB  - When patients who have frequent, disabling migraines take medications to relieve their symptoms, they run the risk that the attacks will increase in frequency to daily or near-daily as a rebound effect comes into play. This pattern, called medication overuse headache, is more likely to happen with butalbital and opioids than with migraine-specific drugs, as partial responses lead to recurrence, repeat dosing, and, eventually, overuse. Breaking the cycle involves weaning the patient from the overused medications, setting up a preventive regimen, and setting strict limits on the use of medications to relieve acute symptoms.