• J Headache Pain · Dec 2017

    Randomized Controlled Trial

    Treatment of withdrawal headache in patients with medication overuse headache: a pilot study.

    • Sabina Cevoli, Giulia Giannini, Valentina Favoni, Rossana Terlizzi, Elisa Sancisi, Marianna Nicodemo, Stefano Zanigni, Maria Letizia Bacchi Reggiani, Giulia Pierangeli, and Pietro Cortelli.
    • IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, UOC Clinica Neurologica, Bellaria Hospital, Via Altura 3, 40139, Bologna, Italy. sabina.cevoli@unibo.it.
    • J Headache Pain. 2017 Dec 1; 18 (1): 5656.

    BackgroundDrug withdrawal still remains the key element in the treatment of Medication Overuse Headache (MOH), but there is no consensus about the withdrawal procedure. Still debated is the role of the steroid therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of methylprednisolone or paracetamol in the treatment of withdrawal headache in MOH.MethodsWe performed a pilot, randomized, single-blinded, placebo controlled trial. MOH patients, unresponsive to a 3 months prophylaxis, underwent withdrawal therapy on an inpatient basis. Overused medications were abruptly stopped and methylprednisolone 500 mg i.v (A) or paracetamol 4 g i.v. (B) or placebo i.v. (C) were given daily for 5 days. Patients were monitored at 1 and 3 months.ResultsEighty three consecutive MOH patients were enrolled. Fifty seven patients completed the study protocol. Nineteen patients were randomized to each group. Withdrawal headache on the 5th day was absent in 21.0% of group A, in 31.6% of group B and in 12.5% of group C without significant differences. Withdrawal headache intensity decreased significantly after withdrawal without differences among the groups. Rregardless of withdrawal treatment, 52% MOH patients reverted to an episodic migraine and 62% had no more medication overuse after 3 months.ConclusionsThis study suggests that in a population of severe MOH patients, withdrawal headache decreased significantly in the first 5 days of withdrawal regardless of the treatment used. Methylprednisolone and paracetamol are not superior to placebo at the end of the detoxification program.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…