Headache associated with mis-use of analgesics

Medication overuse headache (MOH) is a secondary chronic daily headache resulting from overuse of symptomatic drugs in a headache-prone patient. MOH is a serious public health problem and the French national health care accreditation and evaluation agency (Agence Nationale d'Accréditation et d'Evaluation en Santé) recently proposed MOH management guidelines. Beyond these guidelines and according to the latest data in the literature, a relevant approach to MOH requires answering questions concerning: (i) diagnostic criteria of MOH, (ii) prevalence of MOH, (iii) implication of various drugs capable of inducing and sustaining MOH, (iv) pathophysiological mechanisms underlying MOH, (v) severity of MOH and (vi) the best management strategy for MOH.