Let’s avoid accepting this headache paradigm as gospel

Dr. Crain’s excellent review, “Breaking the cycle of medication overuse headache” (J Fam Pract. 2021;70:20-28) provides an approach to the diagnosis and treatment of this common disorder that is consistent with most expert opinion and published guidelines. However, like most articles on this subject, it is missing a critical review of the evidence that supports the existence of this condition and the recommended treatments. 

The strong association between intractable headaches and quantity of medication used makes the diagnosis of medication overuse headache (MOH) attractive with plausible (if unproven) pathophysiological mechanisms. However, reversing the direction of causation (intractable headaches lead to more medication) seems just as likely. While MOH is taken as an article of faith by most headache experts, high-quality studies in support of this theory have not yet been performed.¹

On the other hand, fear of MOH often leads to rigid, arbitrary limitations of abortive medications, blaming of the patient for their symptoms, and the substitution of a host of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions that similarly lack evidence of efficacy. Patients with chronic migraine are told to take abortive medications early in the headache but not to take them more than twice per week. They hoard their medications while trying to decide if each daily headache is the “big one” that merits depleting their limited supply of medication.

Avoiding medication “overuse” and prescribing from our growing armamentarium of effective preventive medications remain important strategies. However, until we have better evidence, we need to be a little more flexible in prescribing abortive medications and avoid accepting the MOH paradigm as gospel.

David A. Silverstein, MD
Buffalo, NY

Dr. Crain’s excellent review, “Breaking the cycle of medication overuse headache” (J Fam Pract. 2021;70:20-28) provides an approach to the diagnosis and treatment of this common disorder that is consistent with most expert opinion and published guidelines. However, like most articles on this subject, it is missing a critical review of the evidence that supports the existence of this condition and the recommended treatments. 

The strong association between intractable headaches and quantity of medication used makes the diagnosis of medication overuse headache (MOH) attractive with plausible (if unproven) pathophysiological mechanisms. However, reversing the direction of causation (intractable headaches lead to more medication) seems just as likely. While MOH is taken as an article of faith by most headache experts, high-quality studies in support of this theory have not yet been performed.¹

On the other hand, fear of MOH often leads to rigid, arbitrary limitations of abortive medications, blaming of the patient for their symptoms, and the substitution of a host of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions that similarly lack evidence of efficacy. Patients with chronic migraine are told to take abortive medications early in the headache but not to take them more than twice per week. They hoard their medications while trying to decide if each daily headache is the “big one” that merits depleting their limited supply of medication.

Avoiding medication “overuse” and prescribing from our growing armamentarium of effective preventive medications remain important strategies. However, until we have better evidence, we need to be a little more flexible in prescribing abortive medications and avoid accepting the MOH paradigm as gospel.

David A. Silverstein, MD
Buffalo, NY

Dr. Crain’s excellent review, “Breaking the cycle of medication overuse headache” (J Fam Pract. 2021;70:20-28) provides an approach to the diagnosis and treatment of this common disorder that is consistent with most expert opinion and published guidelines. However, like most articles on this subject, it is missing a critical review of the evidence that supports the existence of this condition and the recommended treatments. 

The strong association between intractable headaches and quantity of medication used makes the diagnosis of medication overuse headache (MOH) attractive with plausible (if unproven) pathophysiological mechanisms. However, reversing the direction of causation (intractable headaches lead to more medication) seems just as likely. While MOH is taken as an article of faith by most headache experts, high-quality studies in support of this theory have not yet been performed.¹

On the other hand, fear of MOH often leads to rigid, arbitrary limitations of abortive medications, blaming of the patient for their symptoms, and the substitution of a host of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions that similarly lack evidence of efficacy. Patients with chronic migraine are told to take abortive medications early in the headache but not to take them more than twice per week. They hoard their medications while trying to decide if each daily headache is the “big one” that merits depleting their limited supply of medication.

Avoiding medication “overuse” and prescribing from our growing armamentarium of effective preventive medications remain important strategies. However, until we have better evidence, we need to be a little more flexible in prescribing abortive medications and avoid accepting the MOH paradigm as gospel.

David A. Silverstein, MD
Buffalo, NY