Headache Pills Mean Headache Pain

KC Taylor: It stops you when you're in track. It keeps you in bed for days. You'll do anything to stop that pain in your head. 12 million people suffer from daily life-stopping migraines, but treatment through constant pill popping could do more harm than good. Vera Laubacher: A few months ago I couldn’t function. KC Taylor: Vera Laubacher’s migraine got so bad she didn’t know where to turn. Vera Laubacher: I would have probably three bad weeks out of a month. KC Taylor: She stopped walking, exercising, even eating. Vera was already high daily doses of Topamax and Imitrex along with Aspirin and Advil. Vera Laubacher: They will go away for two hours and it will come back. So I get more and more. KC Taylor: It turns out the medicine she was using to relieve her pain was causing it. Dr. Deborah Tepper: By far, the most common reason that she has come here with daily headache or near daily headache is medication overuse. KC Taylor: Doctors of the Cleveland Clinic diagnosed Vera with MOH. Dr. Deborah Tepper: Through acutely treating a headache more than 10 days per month, there is a high likelihood that there is medication overuse. KC Taylor: The use of powerful painkillers like Opioids or Butalbital are red flags for MOH. But treatment for patients like Vera means being weaned off those meds completely. Vera Laubacher: I don’t take Aspirin, I don’t take Tylenol, I don’t take any of that stuff. We threw away the Imitrex. KC Taylor: Research shows it takes 2-6 months for the brain to recover from medication over use. Vera is proof. No pills and no daily headache. She knows that less is truly more. I'm KC Taylor reporting.