title: Self-medication of regular headache: a community pharmacy-based survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This observational community pharmacy-based study aimed to investigate headache characteristics and medication use of persons with regular headache presenting for self-medication.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants (n = 1205) completed (i) a questionnaire to assess current headache medication and previous physician diagnosis, (ii) the ID Migraine Screener (ID-M), and (iii) the Migraine Disability Assessment questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-four percentage of the study population (n = 528) did not have a physician diagnosis of their headache, and 225 of them (225/528, 42.6%) were found to be ID-M positive. The most commonly used acute headache drugs were paracetamol (used by 62% of the study population), NSAIDs (39%), and combination analgesics (36%). Only 12% of patients physician-diagnosed with migraine used prophylactic migraine medication, and 25% used triptans. About 24% of our sample (n = 292) chronically overused acute medication, which was combination analgesic overuse (n = 166), simple analgesic overuse (n = 130), triptan overuse (n = 19), ergot overuse (n = 6), and opioid overuse (n = 5). Only 14.5% was ever advised to limit intake frequency of acute headache treatments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study identified underdiagnosis of migraine, low use of migraine prophylaxis and triptans, and high prevalence of medication overuse amongst subjects seeking self-medication for regular headache. Community pharmacists have a strategic position in education and referral of these self-medicating headache patients.
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutical Care Unit, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. els.mehuys@ugent.be
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mehuys
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Paemeleire
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Van Hees
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Christiaens
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Van Bortel
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van Tongelen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Bolle
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Remon
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boussery
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs