What is Triptan-Overuse Headache?
- Patient takes one or more meds containing a triptan 10+ days per month for 3+ months.
- As more triptans are taken, headaches have increased to 10+ days per month.
- Typically these attacks are not just headache but include other migraine symptoms.
- Patients will have an underlying condition (a type of migraine) as well as the diagnosis of TOH.
Usually attacks decrease within 2 months after patient stops using triptans.
A patient taking triptans AND other abortives may be diagnosed with combination-analgesic-overuse headache, a condition which may be harder to treat.
Even if a patient technically doesn’t have TOH, they may still be taking too many triptans. Talk to a specialist who knows your medical history.
For more information:
- Medication-Overuse Headache and the Brain (new study)
- Triptan-overuse headache
- One or several types of triptan overuse headaches?
- Help! How Can I Not Overuse Migraine Medications?
- Painkillers – How Much is Too Much?
- The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition (beta version) (pdf)
murraysharron
6 January 2014 @ 11:16 am
@migraine_blog Good share. Been down that path & took me a lot of hard work & years to revert from CM & MOH to EM.
13 October 2016 @ 11:39 pm
I have read about people who are on continuous triptan treatment to manage their chronic daily migraines. Which apparently works very well for them. Why would this not cause MOH or TOH? Or why would it even be suggested?