Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) and an Innovative Approach

It will be a multicentre parallel group study. The two arms of the clinical protocol will be 1) classic approach to MOH and 2) Interactive Electronic Patient Record (IEPR)-based approach to MOH.

Each arm will last 12 months.

MOH will be diagnosed according to the 2006 MOH-R criteria of the International Headache Society as reported below:

A. Headache present on > 15 days/month.

B. Regular overuse for > 3 months of one or more acute symptomatic drugs:

• Ergotamine, triptans, opioids or combination analgesic medications on > 10 days/month on a regular basis for > 3 months.
• Simple analgesics or any combination of ergotamine, triptans, analgesics or opioids on > 15 days/month on a regular basis for >3 months without overuse (> 10 days) of any single class alone.

C. Headache has developed or markedly worsened during medication overuse.

The IEPR approach will be preliminarily tested and validated in small groups of patients during months 6-12 (pilot validation).

Each patient will be evaluated over a period of 7 months.

Classic approach Visit 0: patient is examined and, if suspected to suffer from MOH, is asked to fill in a diary for a month in order to quantify parameters of MOH (days with headache, acute drugs consumed, etc.). Patient has to report that MOH-R criteria were fulfilled for the previous 2 months.

Visit 1: Patient returns to the Centre, diary data are analyzed and recorded, and, if criteria for MOH-R diagnosis are fulfilled and exclusion criteria are ruled out , patient is enrolled in COMOESTAS protocol.

Detoxification: following visit 1, patient undergoes detoxification according to the protocol in Appendix 1. In the subsequent 2 months the patient is instructed to record headache characteristics and consumption of symptomatic drugs on a paper diary.

Visit 2 (2 months after detoxification): patient is visited again; diary is checked; if therapy is successful (patient no longer overuses acute medications for headache) the patient is scheduled for a follow-up visit after 4 months. The patient is asked to keep up recording headache characteristics and consumption of symptomatic drugs on a paper diary for the next 4 months and informed about a telephone contact after 2 months.

Visit 3 (6 months after detoxification): patient is visited again, diary data are collected. Study ends.

IEPR approach Visit 0: patient is examined and, if the minimum data set of the IEPR for MOH is satisfied, the patients is asked to record the headache characteristics as well as acute drugs consumption on a paper diary for a month in order to assess baseline parameters of MOH (days with headache, acute drugs consumed, etc.).

Patient has to report that MOH-R criteria were fulfilled for the previous 2 months.

Visit 1: Patient returns to the Centre, diary data are analyzed and recorded, and, if criteria for MOH diagnosis are confirmed and criteria of exclusion are ruled out, patient is enrolled in COMOESTAS protocol .

Detoxification: following Visit 1, patient undergoes detoxification according to the same protocol adopted for the classic approach. During the detoxification phase, the patient is instructed to use the electronic diary and is then asked to fill the electronic diary on a regular basis (preferably daily or at least weekly) for the next 6 months.

Visit 2 (2 months after detoxification): patient is visited again; if therapy is successful (patient no longer overuses acute medications for headache), MOH diagnosis the patient is scheduled for a follow-up visit after 4 months and informed about a telephone contact after 2 months. The patient is asked to keep up filling the electronic diary for the next 4 months.

Visit 3: the patient is visited again. Study ends.

Inclusion criteria

Patients with MOH

Exclusion criteria

• a current diagnosis of co-existent, significant and complicating medical or psychiatric illnesses
• significant overuse of "pure" opioids (patients overusing combination drugs containing opioids are allowed), benzodiazepines, and barbiturates,
• overuse of alcohol and other drugs of addiction,
• current treatment with migraine prophylactic drugs
• inefficacy of previous adequate detoxification programmes
• inability to provide reliable information about medical history
• pregnancy or breast feeding
• inability to learn how to use paper or electronic diaries