Medications can make headaches worse

This report was recently “re” reported: the original was posted in 2007 in the New York Times.

The facts are that a sizable and growing number of headaches are caused by painkillers taken to relieve the suffering.

The numbers are stunningly large.

Up to 3 million Americans are suffering from headaches they are actually causing themselves by overusing medications.

Up to 50% of chronic migraines and 25% of all headaches are actually a “rebound” effect from overuse of medications. Medications implicated can be prescriptions or over the counter. The most likely culprits are the triptans or caffeine containing meds. Fiorinal and Fioricet have been banned in Germany because of this effect, but are still prescribed here in the U.S.

This is perfectly understandable. The patient experiences a headache and takes medication to relieve it, but the medication can cause a sort of “hangover” which leads to another headache, so the patient needs to take even more medication.

If patients are taking medications more than 15 days a month, they may be in this category, though the amount taken is also taken into consideration.

Unfortunately, patients may have to stop taking medications for up to 2 months(!!) before they see any diminution in headache. This obviously would be perceived as a great hardship for many patients.

In the context of this report the use of stress reduction techniques and, of course, ACUPUNCTURE is a logical and prudent course of action.

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