The 10-20 rule in migraine and headache therapy

The 10-20 rule in headache therapy

An increase and intensification of headaches due to overuse of painkillers or triptans must always be suspected when acute medication is required on more than ten days per month, regardless of the dose used.

The "10-20 rule" for avoiding and recognizing medication overuse headache (MOH) states: Painkillers and specific migraine medications (the so-called triptans) should be used on a maximum of 10 days per month.

Therefore, 20 out of 30 days should be free of taking them. This rule does not count the tablets used on the 10 days, but only the specific day itself, regardless of the amount taken.

This also means: It's better to treat properly once than to treat only superficially often. For these reasons, recording headaches over the course of a month using a headache diary is essential for modern headache therapy.