VIDEO
Painkillers ‘Cause’ Of Millions Of Headaches
Who can help me?
Several health professionals are available to help you. Initially, the local pharmacist can offer information and advice about dealing with quite a wide range of problems, and will know when to advise you to consult your doctor for investigation and treatment.
This includes coping with headaches. Your doctor will be able to assess your headache and offer appropriate advice and assessment in the first instance or may ask other members of the Primary Health Care Team to offer you advice or support as you try to get back in control of your headache symptoms. If your doctor feels unable to help or improve things, a referral to a doctor with a special interest (GPwSI) or neurologist might be appropriate. If you are very lucky, you may also get access to a Specialist Headache Nurse.
The Community Pharmacist
I have started to get the occasional headache. Is the local pharmacist likely to be able to help?
Your pharmacist will be able to offer advice about the different sorts of painkillers that you can buy ‘over the counter’ (OTC; without a prescription), which may help you improve or control your headache symptoms. Your pharmacist will also have some awareness of the risks of taking too many painkillers and how this might lead to your developing a medication overuse headache.
A triptan, sumatriptan, is now available from your pharmacist, once they have determined that it is the right drug to use to treat your migraine and safe for you to take.For more information on acute treatment. When I first started taking painkillers for my headaches, they helped, but nowadays I seem to keep taking them just to stop the headache from coming back. The pharmacist felt that provided I did not take more than the prescribed dose there should not be a problem. Please help! It sounds as if you might be taking too many painkillers. This results in a medication overuse headache where the painkillers seem to drive the headache rather than stop it. You need to stop all the painkillers.This is not always easy and you may well need help from your doctor. Your doctor may help you himself or refer you to a specialist headache centre.
My pharmacist tells me that I might be making my headaches worse by taking so many painkillers. What does she mean?
There is some evidence that taking painkillers to treat headache symptoms on most days, even if it’s just a single dose, can lead to a medication overuse headache. In crude terms, the brain’s pain receptors are being kept ‘on’ rather than being switched off by the tablets. The more often you take the painkillers, the more headaches you get, and the more painkillers you seem to need.
The headache just never seems to go away completely. I have tried lots of different tablets for my headache. Should I go back to the pharmacist or is it time to see my doctor?
I suspect the time has come to see your doctor. Treating headache is about making sure you know what your headache is before you can find the right treatment for it. There are ways of managing your headache without taking any tablets at all. If you have tried too many tablets or are taking them too often, you may need your doctor’s help to stop using them. If there are any worrying symptoms, your doctor may want to refer you to a specialist.
My doctor has said that I can buy ibuprofen and domperidone from the local chemist without a prescription. My doctor wrote down what doses to take but the pharmacist has said that they are too big. Who is right?
They are both right, in terms of the guidelines they work within. Drugs that can be purchased over the counter are not always available at the same sort of doses as your doctor can prescribe for you. Buying drugs ‘over the counter’ can be a cheaper option than paying a full prescription charge, which may be why your doctor suggested that you do this.
That is a ‘prescription pre-payment certificate’?
It was something that the pharmacy assistant mentioned. If you pay for your prescriptions, you could buy a prescription ‘season ticket’: you pay a fixed sum in advance, and that covers you for all NHS prescriptions for a certain period. This scheme is worth it if you have 6 or more items in four months or 15 or more items in a year. You can apply for this pre-payment certificate on form FP95, which is available at most chemist/pharmacist shops and main post offices or from your Primary Care Trust.
