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.