[Abuse of substances for immediate management of pain in patients with headache].

Data on the use of pain relieving drugs in 339 patients who used medication to relieve their headache are presented. One hundred sixty eight (49%) of them were considered as abusers based on Diamond and Dalessio's criteria modified by Saper. The most common form of abuse was the daily use of PRD, observed in 90 (54%) of the patients (criterion A) followed by: abuse by criterion A plus use of more than 100 doses of analgesic/month (criterion B) observed in 18 (11%) and finally criterion A plus daily use of compounds containing barbiturates or other tranquilizing drugs, in 18 (11%) of the patients. The abuse by psychotropic drugs was observed in 11 (7%) of the patients. The data suggest that the abuse of PRD is high and must be regarded as a public health problem.