A study conducted by one of the leading headache researchers, Dr. Richard Lipton looked at possible factors that worsen migraine headaches. The study looked at people with frequent migraines (15 or more days with headache a month) and found that these patients were more likely to be female, overweight, depressed, have a lower education level and overused medications. The overused medications included narcotics, barbiturates (Fioricet, Fiorinal and Esgic) but also over-the-counter drugs such as Excedrin. The only exception was aspirin – it appeared to be protective, that is people taking aspirin were less likely to develop chronic headaches. Dietary caffeine and stresful life events were also more common prior to development of chronic migraines.
