Clinical and psychosocial features of frequent relapsers (FR) among patients with chronic migraine and medication overuse

The objective was to characterize frequent relapsers (FR)-i.e. those requiring two or more withdrawals in a 3-year period-in a sample of 188 patients with chronic migraine with medication overuse (CM-MO). We tested differences between FR and non-FR for age, gender, employment status, days with headache, headache severity, type of overused medication, BDI-II, WHODAS 2.0 and MSQ. 30.8% of participants were FR: they were more frequently treated as inpatients and living alone, had a lower education, higher disability and lower QoL, higher frequency and intensity of headaches, and higher depression scores. Clinicians should address whether CM-MO patients submitted to withdrawal had recently underwent other similar interventions.