Too Much of a Good a Thing
Medication overuse headache is a very rare condition that gets its name from how it occurs. Some patients overuse a pain reliever to treat their headache pain. These patients continue to overuse their pain reliever, in some cases for a period of months or years, even when they no longer suffer from the pain. If they attempt to stop taking the medication, their headache pain comes back stronger than before, or rebounds, and they are forced to continue overusing that medication to treat the new pain. This cycle continues until broken with appropriate medical care, and can lead to potentially serious physical side effects.

Some people wrongly believe that caffeine is the main culprit in causing this phenomenon. In fact, medications that contain caffeine are no more likely to cause medication overuse headache than any other pain reliever.

The good news is that this condition is very rare; less than 2% of the general population is reported to suffer from mediccation overuse headache. And you can follow a few simple steps to help ensure the appropriate use of your medications and avoid the medication overuse headache.