Morphometric changes over the whole brain in caffeine-containing combination-analgesic-overuse headache

OBJECTIVE: To investigate brain morphometric changes in medication-overuse headache with excessive intake of caffeine-containing combination analgesics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We recruited 32 medication-overuse headache patients overusing caffeine-containing combination analgesics and 26 normal controls with matched sex and age. Magnetic resonance T1-weighted images were processed by automatic volume algorithm of brain regions over the whole brain according to the neuromorphometrics template. We explored the volume differences between groups and correlation with clinical variables. RESULTS: Medication-overuse headache patients demonstrated decreased volume in cerebellum, optic chiasm, and increased volume in right lateral orbital gyrus, left calcarine, bilateral middle occipital gyrus, right superior parietal lobe, and right temporal transverse gyrus compared with normal controls. The increased volume was primarily contributed by patients of lower headache frequency (10–20 days/month) and with no psychological comorbidities. In regression analyses, the volume of bilateral middle occipital gyrus had negative association with migraine duration, and the volume of right lateral orbital gyrus and right superior parietal lobe was negatively correlated with number of medications per month. CONCLUSIONS: Volume changes of brain regions involved in affective and cognitive processing, visual and auditory perception, and pain sensory/discrimination suggested a particular role of those regions in the pathogenesis of medication-overuse headache overusing caffeine-containing combination analgesics. Morphometric changes in multiple visual processing areas and volume gain in lower headache frequency and less anxiety and depression may be specific features related to overusing caffeine-containing combination analgesics.