Orbitofrontal cortex involvement in chronic analgesic-overuse headache evolving from episodic migraine

[en] The way in which medication overuse transforms episodic migraine into chronic daily headache is unknown. To search for candidate brain areas involved in this process, we measured glucose metabolism with 18-FDG PET in 16 chronic migraineurs with analgesic overuse before and 3 weeks after medication withdrawal and compared the data with those of a control population (n = 68). Before withdrawal, the bilateral thalamus, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate gyrus, insula/ventral striatum and right inferior parietal lobule were hypometabolic, while the cerebellar vermis was hypermetabolic. All dysmetabolic areas recovered to almost normal glucose uptake after withdrawal of analgesics, except the OFC where a further metabolic decrease was found. A subanalysis showed that most of the orbitofrontal hypometabolism was due to eight patients overusing combination analgesics and/or an ergotamine-caffeine preparation. Medication overuse headache is thus associated with reversible metabolic changes in pain processing structures like other chronic pain disorders, but also with persistent orbitofrontal hypofunction. The latter is known to occur in drug dependence and could predispose subgroups of migraineurs to recurrent analgesic overuse.

Disciplines :

Neurosciences & behavior
Neurology

Author, co-author :

Fumal, Arnaud ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > Neurologie CHR

Laureys, Steven ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Centre de recherches du cyclotron

Di Clemente, Laura

Boly, Mélanie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Neurologie

Bohotin, Valentin

Vandenheede, Michel

Coppola, Gianluca

Salmon, Eric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cliniques > Neuroimagerie des troubles de la mémoire et révalid. cogn.

Kupers, Ron

Schoenen, Jean ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences biomédicales et précliniques > Neuro-anatomie

Language :

English

Title :

Orbitofrontal cortex involvement in chronic analgesic-overuse headache evolving from episodic migraine

Publication date :

February 2006

Journal title :

Brain: a Journal of Neurology

ISSN :

0006-8950

eISSN :

1460-2156

Publisher :

Oxford Univ Press, Oxford, United Kingdom

Volume :

129

Issue :

Pt 2

Pages :

543-550

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 30 January 2012

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Scopus citations^®

256

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

235

OpenCitations

230

OpenAlex citations

291

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