The patient with medication overuse: clinical management problems

Neurol Sci. 2003 May:24 Suppl 2:S108-11. doi: 10.1007/s100720300054.

Abstract

Patients with chronic headache arise many problems in clinical management, often strictly related to medication overuse. IHS classification did not clear the different clinical presentation and a chapter dedicated to this problem is lacking. This condition is very frequently associated with psychiatric illness, so that the clinical features become more complex over the years. Most of patients share a past clinical condition of episodic migraine; this aspect is very important facing the therapeutical phase, because after discontinuing medication overuse, if present, the treatment must be direct toward this disease. To treat a patient with analgesic, or ergotamine, or triptan abuse, require much caution because stopping the drug may arise new problems, such as different headache, abstinence syndrome, epileptic seizures etc. We review the different possibility that we have to manage the overuser patient.

Publication types

  • Lecture

MeSH terms

  • Analgesics / administration & dosage*
  • Analgesics / adverse effects*
  • Behavioral Symptoms / chemically induced
  • Chronic Disease
  • Depression / chemically induced*
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Headache / classification
  • Headache / drug therapy*
  • Headache Disorders / classification
  • Headache Disorders / drug therapy
  • Headache Disorders / epidemiology
  • Headache Disorders / psychology
  • Humans
  • Migraine Disorders / drug therapy
  • Personality Disorders / chemically induced
  • Prognosis
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Analgesics