RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Breaking the cycle of medication overuse headache
JF Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
JO Cleve Clin J Med
FD Cleveland Clinic
SP 236
OP 242
DO 10.3949/ccjm.77a.09147
VO 77
IS 4
A1 Stewart J. Tepper
A1 Deborah E. Tepper
YR 2010
UL http://www.ccjm.org/content/77/4/236.abstract
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.