Migraine medication unsuitable for ordinary headaches

HAMBURG - Using a migraine medication regularly to alleviate ordinary headaches can cause chronic 'pseudo-migraines,' according to Ruediger Fabian, president of the German Pain Aid Association.

Speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) in the run-up to German Headache Day, which is on Migraine medications should not be taken on oneSeptember 5, Fabian said that migraine medications should not be taken on one's own initiative in any case.

'They don't belong in patients' hands,' he remarked.

Even the occasional use of migraine medications by someone without migraines is potentially harmful, Fabian warned. 'The reactions depend on the person, but they can intensify ordinary headaches,' he said. More specifically, the reactions depend on the condition of the vascular system in the patient's brain, which is what migraine medications affect.

Fabian said that people with headaches on considerably fewer than 100 days a year had ordinary headaches. If standard headache medications bring no relief, sufferers can take an extra pain tablet now and then because the medications are generally safe, he noted.

The first sign of an overdose of such medications is a sour-tasting expulsion of gas from the stomach, Fabian said, after which no more tablets should be taken. He advised people who suddenly get headaches differing from previous ones to consult a physician because their cause could be something serious.

The German Pain Aid Association is headquartered near Hamburg.

• Health and Fitness