Thousands of Finns suffer headaches caused by pain medication

Regular use of pain killers can perpetuate pain

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Thousands of Finns suffer from long-term headaches, which could actually be caused by medication taken to ease pain.
      "When investigating the causes of an extended headache, excess use of pain medication can be found in about 70 per cent of cases", said neurologist Matti Ilmavirta in Helsinki at the ongoing annual Finnish Medical Convention on Monday.
      Ilmavirta compares the situation with coffee addiction. If a chronic coffee drinker does not get a normal daily dose at the regular time, a headache can ensue. Pain-killer headaches hit when a regularly consumed pill is skipped. Taking the medicine regularly is seen as a more crucial factor than the size of the dose.
     
"Medication prolongs pain symptoms", Ilmavirta said.
      "Over a period of weeks and months it starts to maintain the pain."
      Medication lasting about two weeks will not have such consequences, but pain induced by pain medicines can be suspected if the medication is needed at least two weeks out of a month during a period of over three-months.
     
Pain medicines are often taken for periods that are much longer than that. Ilmavirta noted that many who seek medical attention have been using pain killers on a daily basis for a year or two.
      Pain medicines are used to alleviate all kinds of aches. They generally work for a few hours, but after the medicine wears off, the pain often returns.
     
If the medicine is not taken, the result can be a severe headache, constituting a withdrawal symptom of sorts, and accompanied by an overall feeling of weakness, nausea, difficulties in concentration, irritability, anguish, restlessness, and dizziness.
      "There is almost always an aggravated migraine", Ilmavirta explained.
      The treatment for pain-killer headaches is to stop the medication for two weeks. Before that, the patient needs to keep precise records of the headache and medicines that are taken, after which the suspected medication is stopped.
      The ensuing withdrawal is sometimes so severe that hospitalisation is required. The situation eases in a week, and the patient's head clears up in three and a half days, on average.
      After successful withdrawal, steps are taken to avoid repeating the same situation by maintaining breaks in the medication.


Links:
  Finnish Medical Convention

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