Rebound Headache

Headaches rank among the most common local pain complaints. It is a condition of feeling pain in the head, the neck and at times in the upper back area. Headaches, unfortunately, have a wide variety of causes that can be traced back to a simple eye strain or to as deadly as a brain tumor. One thing is important to note, however: headaches are an underlying symptom of a disease. Recurring headaches should be observed properly.

Common diseases or disorders that can cause headaches are sinusitis and stress. Life threatening diseases such as encephalitis, meningitis, and cerebral aneurysms can include one of varied symptoms, too. As mentioned earlier, people must be concerned of recurring headaches and must undergo immediate check-ups as much as possible.

There is a kind of headache, however that is not caused by simple stress or a deadly disease; in fact it is caused by the very medications that are known to stop headaches. Ironic as it may sound, Dr. Lee Kudrow discovered that headache medications are indeed the cause of some terrible headaches. He called it: rebound headache.

The rebound headache is a kind of a headache caused by the overuse of headache medications. A person with a headache tends to pop headache pills in a larger dosages and frequency prescribed to him whenever the medication's effect wears off. Or sometimes, in his desire to stop a headache even before it occurs, he pops a pill or two to reduce the symptoms. But this kind of self medication causes a rebound headache.

The cause of the rebound headache is easy to identify but it is very hard to diagnose. Usually, doctors advise the patients to withdraw from medication for 6 months. Intensified headaches usually will occur in the first few weeks which will eventually recede. Doctors will usually ask patients regarding new patterns in headaches after taking excessive painkillers. Headaches will usually occur more than three times per week.

At the time of occurrence of a rebound headache, preventive medications are not that effective anymore. After treatment of a rebound headache, patients will return to their usual headache pattern. The re-use of medications after this must then be consulted first to a doctor.

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