Summary
Introduction: Headaches of various etiologies are frequent cause of patients visits to their primary care doctors. Before visiting their family doctor many patients make attempts to treat their headaches themselves. Such behaviour is encouraged by wide access to over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers. Although relatively safe, these drugs may reveal severe side effects. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to assess the prevalence of headache in primary care outpatients and to assess both the non-pharmacological methods and drugs the patients use prior to visiting their doctors.
Materials and methods: A questionnaire-based survey was carried out among persons registered to three primary care practices located in the Lodz – Widzew and Gorna districts. The study covered three hundred subjects aged fiveteen and over, who visited the practice for various reasons. The questionnaire contained questions concerning demographic information as well as the methods of relieving headaches among these patients.
Results: The results indicate that headaches are the common problem among persons registered to GPs. More than 85% of such persons suffered from headaches during previous 12 months. Among the medications applied by the patients there were drugs from various groups, including paracetamol, acetylsalicylic acid and a number of NSAIDs, as well as unconventional methods. The most important source of information influencing patient choice of drug for headache self-mediation were advertisements in the mass media.
Conclusions: Self-medication of headache with over-the-counter pain-killers is a frequent phenomenon. It is connected with the wide availability of these drugs and their frequent advertising in the mass media. Therefore, apart from their role in diagnosing and managing of headache, general practitioners should inform the patients about the possible serious side effects connected with such drugs.