Europe's Headaches
The European Union is losing over 25 billion pounds per year on the treatment of headaches and the loss of
working days caused by them. Timothy Steiner, a member of the European Headache Federation (EHF) and
consultant clinical physiologist in London, based this figure on the three main types of headache that
workers take sick leave because of: migraine, tension headache and chronic daily headache. Steiner
believes that this figure could be greatly reduced if people would not misuse the headache remedies
available for them. "There are a lot of people," he comments, "with daily headaches who take daily
analgesics. And if they stop taking them, their headaches will go away." This is due to the fact that
continual use of headache pills may reinforce a person's belief that they are seriously ill, thus creating
tension and therefore causing their headaches. There is also the rumor/talk that overuse of analgesics
could cause liver damage in many people. The European Headache Federation wants to launch a large
study to monitor the link between the overuse of painkillers and the chronic daily headache. However, as
the cost of such research might be very high, drug companies are reluctant to be involved. The European
Headache Federation is, therefore, planning to approach the Medical Research Council and the European
Commission - which have a large health research budget - in request to win backup for this project. If
successful, the results will help them find solutions to the ever-growing medical and financial problems
caused by headaches.