Why Your Daily Headache Medications May be Making Your Headaches Worse

No one enjoys experiencing a headache and when they become a daily event, it can be a challenge. It’s difficult to be productive when you’re distracted by recurrent head pain. If you’re unfortunate enough to be dealing with the challenge of daily headaches, you may be surprised to learn that your medications could be playing a role. When pain medication is used on a daily basis, headaches can become more frequent, resulting in a condition known as rebound headaches.

If you’re experiencing persistent daily headaches, you should be evaluated by a doctor, particularly if you’re over the age of forty or your headaches have changed in frequency or character. This is important to rule out any underlying pathology. Once you have a clean bill of health from your doctor, it’s time to reassess the type of headache medications you’re using and how often you’re using them. If you’re using medication on a daily basis for your headaches, including ones you buy at the drugstore such as aspirin and Tylenol, you may be experiencing rebound headaches. Even certain prescription medications given to you by your doctor can be the cause of daily headaches if used too frequently.

If you’re taking prescription medications for headache relief, talk to your doctor about how often they can be taken. This can help you avoid persistent daily headaches due to rebound. As far as over-the-counter medications such as aspirin or Tylenol, they shouldn’t be used more than twice a week to treat headache. If used more frequently, you increase your risk of rebound headaches.

How are persistent daily headaches related to rebound treated? If you’re taking prescription medications, your doctor will have you discontinue your headache medications for several weeks. During this time, your headaches may worsen during the first two weeks. If this happens, your doctor can prescribe a prophylactic medication to be taken daily that won’t cause rebound. Once you’ve completely withdrawn from your medications and broken the cycle of daily headaches, your doctor may again allow you to use symptom relieving medications such as aspirin as long as you limit them to no more than twice a week.

There are a variety of prescription medications that can be taken on a daily basis to prevent headaches that won’t cause rebound symptoms. These include some types of antidepressants, beta-blockers, and seizure medications. Unfortunately, these drugs are not without side effects. A better approach may be to keep a headache diary to help identify factors that bring on the symptoms as well as learn more effective ways to relieve stress.