Medication Headaches

British neurologist Dr. Simon Ellis²thinks he has figured out why daily chronic headaches have become epidemic in many industrialized countries. The reason, he says, is overuse of pain medication.

Writing in the British Medical Associations Postgraduate Medical Journal,³Dr. Ellis says that painkillers can turn acute headaches into chronic ones. One way to get rid of headaches that go on for months, he says, is to simply discontinue the pain medication. He thinks that pharmaceutical companies should put a warning on the label that overuse can lead to chronic headache pain.⁴

^{2. Dr. Simon Ellis, Department of Neurology, North Staffordshite Royal Infirmary}

^{3. PMJ, April 1997}

^{4. Associated Press, April 14, 1997}