Medication Overuse Headache vs. Migraine
Medications can be a lifesaver when you are suffering from frequent migraine headaches. However, a major problem observed in the past 30 years has been the rise of medication overuse headache.
When patients with frequent headaches turn to both prescription and over the counter medications over the course of years, they may be susceptible to headaches that are induced by the medication itself.
It turns into a vicious cycle where you need a medication to break the actual migraine, but taking the medication will lead to another type of headache that can be just as debilitating.
For most, the rebound headache can feel just as bad as their migraine, and sometimes the pain can be indistinguishable from a migraine.
𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁?
Prevention is always the best medicine. If you are a migraine patient and you notice that your headache frequency is gradually increasing, there is a likelihood that medication overuse headache is starting to occur.
Ultimately reducing the burden of medication overuse headache is to taper/stop the medication.
Of course this is easier said than done. It means not only bearing the pain and suffering of the rebound headaches, but also bearing the pain of the migraines too.
Not having medication doesn’t mean there are no options. There are a number of drug-less therapies that can take the bite out of headaches including:
– Upper Cervical Chiropractic
– Acupuncture
– Mindfulness
– Neurofeedback
There’s also promising trials showing that thr new generation of monoclonal antibodies like Aimovig can help by decreasing medication burden.
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