In short, they’re taking medicine more and more frequently and yet experiencing more and more days of headaches.
Although the typical victim of this scenario assumes that the headaches are occurring more frequently
in spite of
taking painkillers more frequently, the truth of the matter is that the increased headaches are probably occurring
because of
the increased use of painkillers. The headache victim has inadvertently entered a self-inflicted, vicious cycle in which the medications she takes are making her headaches worse and less treatable. This condition is known as “medication overuse headaches” (MOHs). Another name is “analgesic-rebound headaches.” An analgesic is a painkiller and “rebound” means just what it sounds like — a bounce-back. But in this case it’s not a basketball that’s bouncing. Instead, it’s pain in the head that’s bouncing back from the temporary relief afforded by the prior dose of painkilling medication.
The MOH phenomenon occurs not only with prescription-strength painkillers, but also with over-the-counter analgesics like aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and naproxen.
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