Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article, I'll talk about a headache triggered by pain pills.
Sometimes the head hurts from the painkillers themselves. This is called an abuse headache. Usually, this headache occurs for at least half days every month. If the head hurts for 3 months, and there is a connection with some medicine, then this is it.
The man gets used to his pain reliever and without the pills he has a headache.
It is not enough just to take pills for an abusal headache to start. You must definitely have some kind of headache. More often it is a migraine or tension headache.
Abuse headache affects approximately 1 - 2% of the population. It's a lot.
More often women are ill.
Abuse headache is more common in people with depression and anxiety.
Painkillers reduce pain threshold in people. After that, the head will start to ache from all sorts of nonsense.
Addiction develops faster with combination pills with several components. Combinations with caffeine and sedatives are the worst.
But from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, abusal headache is the least common.
How does it happen
A man wakes up with a headache. Regular pain relievers do not help much, and then he takes the combined ones. They feel better, but my head hurts again, and this time even earlier than usual.
Abuse headache occurs if you take painkillers more often 2 to 3 times a week.
If you have something similar, then go to a neurologist. There, even no serious examination is required. The doctor will question and diagnose.
The problem is that very often people lie about their pills.
For the diagnosis of abusal headache, special criteria have been developed:
- Headache 15 or more days a month.
- If you have 10 or more days every month for 3 months in a row, take triptans or combination tablets with a complex composition.
- If you have to take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for headaches for 15 or more days each month.
- Unless the doctor has come up with any more suitable cause for the headache.
All this would be easy if there was no primary headache. It was with her that the abuse of painkillers began. So you can't figure it out without a neurologist. Do not self-medicate.
Treatment
Everything is simple here. Immediately and completely cancel the pills that caused the headache. Then other pills are prescribed. There will be twice as many of these others. They will easily throw up. It is understandable - it is very difficult to treat a person from addiction and withdrawal symptoms.
The details of the treatment are not supposed to be disclosed, and there is no point in this. There is such a treatment that the hair stands on end. This treatment does not have the pleasant effects of Actovegin, Milgamma or Mexidol. No. Everything is grown up there. With nausea and vomiting. So much for the pentalgins with codeines ...
What will happen next
It depends on the patient. If he eats pills uncontrollably, then everything will return. If the abusal pain returns, it is more likely in the first year.
If you do everything correctly and listen to the neurologist, then in about 70% of cases this matter can be corrected. To fix it even means that the pain may not go away, but only decrease.
If the pain has decreased by 50%, then this is already considered a good treatment result. Yes, it's kind of sad, but we are talking about physical dependence on drugs. So even this result will have to be happy.
Do you have such a headache? Count how many pills you ate in a month.
If you liked the article, then like it and subscribe to my channel. Check out my articles on related topics:
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Exercise headache
Headache from the neck
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