The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence has issued new guidelines on headaches caused by medication overuse, which is thought to be a big problem in the United Kingdom. Although proper research papers on this topic are scarce, a German study (Katsarava, Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports 2009, 9: 115-119) reports that up to 4% of the population could be affected by medication overuse. The NICE guidelines suggest 1 in 50. It is unclear why exactly medication overuse causes headaches but it is thought to have something to do with an imbalance in the body's pain control system.
The treatment for medication overuse pain is similar to the "cold turkey" method, whereby a patient who might be following a strict, long term painkiller course is forced to abruptly halt this for up to a month.
