Half of people with migraine in Spain, more than six million, self-medicate with analgesics without a prescription or medical supervision, while 12.7% use opioids to relieve pain. These practices are considered "highly inadvisable" by neurologists, according to a new study by the Headache Study Group of the Spanish Neurology Society (SEN).
The specialists warn that these forms of self-medication represent a significant risk to patients' health. The prolonged and uncontrolled use of analgesics and opioids can generate the so-called medication overuse headache, a condition in which the treatment itself ends up causing additional headaches.
Furthermore, neurologists emphasize that these practices favor the chronification of the disease, transforming occasional migraine episodes into a chronic condition that is more difficult to treat. Medication abuse interferes with the natural course of the disease and can significantly worsen patients' quality of life in the long term.
