Not for the Next Two Months — I Have a Headache

Some individuals with chronic refractory headaches suffer from medication-overuse headaches (MOH). The MOH diagnosis requires that patients have a minimum monthly frequency of medication and that the headaches resolve or improve within 2 months after medication discontinuation. However, it is difficult to withdraw patients from their medication for this amount of time without prescribing other prophylactic medication. In this study, the authors describe their experience in a tertiary outpatient headache center.

Of the 1326 patients treated at the clinic over 2 years, 337 had probable MOH. The researchers focused on the 216 patients (58 men [27%]) who were able to stay medication-free over 2 months. The types of headache were migraine (10%), …