Abstract

BackgroundData on the characteristics of Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) in Latin American (LA) are scarce. Here we report the demographic and clinical features of the MOH patients from Argentina and Chile enrolled in the multinational COMOESTAS project in the period 2008–2010.MethodsThe LA population was formed by 240 MOH subjects, 110 from Chile and 130 from Argentina, consecutively attending the local headache centres. In each centre, specifically trained neurologist interviewed and confirmed the diagnosis according to the ICHD-II criteria. A detailed history was collected on an electronic patient record form.ResultsThe mean patient age was 38.6 years, with a female/male ratio of 8:2. The mean time since onset of the primary headache was 21 years, whereas duration of MOH was 3.9 years. The primary headache was migraine without aura in 77.5 % and migraine with aura in 18.8 %. Forty two % of the patients self-reported emotional stress associated with the chronification of headache; 43.8 % reported insomnia. The most overused medications were acute drug combinations containing ergotamine (70 %), NSAIDs (33.8 %) and triptans (5.4 %).ConclusionThough little described, MOH is present also in LA, where it affects mostly women, in the most active decades of life. Some differences emerge as regards the demographic and clinical characteristics of MOH in this population as compared to Europe or Northern America. What seems more worrying about MOH in Argentina and Chile is that most patients overuse ergotamine, a drug that may cause serious adverse events when used chronically. These findings once more underscore the importance of properly diagnose and treat MOH.

Highlights

  • Data on the characteristics of Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) in Latin American (LA) are scarce

  • In this paper we present the main demographic and clinical characteristics of MOH in a population of 240 MOH sufferers living in Argentina and Chile

  • We evaluated 240 patients consecutively visited in the Neurology Department of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) and in the Integral Pain Center at the Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas Infantiles (FLENI), Argentina, from January 2008 to December 2010 by neurologists who underwent the specific training for MOH diagnosis developed within the COMOESTAS project [17, 18]

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Data on the characteristics of Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) in Latin American (LA) are scarce. We report the demographic and clinical features of the MOH patients from Argentina and Chile enrolled in the multinational COMOESTAS project in the period 2008–2010. Medication overuse headache (MOH) is defined by the chronification of an episodic headache in association with the excessive use of any type of symptomatic medication. It has been recognized for over 50 years [1]. In Chile, for instance, though the condition has been known for many years [15], there is only one publication investigating the epidemiology of chronic headache, but not focused on MOH [16]. In this paper we present the main demographic and clinical characteristics of MOH in a population of 240 MOH sufferers living in Argentina and Chile

Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call