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. 2008 Mar 11;9(2):109–112. doi: 10.1007/s10194-008-0019-9

Increased activity of serotonin uptake in platelets in medication overuse headache following regular intake of analgesics and triptans

Ilya Ayzenberg 1,✉, Mark Oberman 1, Kirsten Leineweber 2, Leonora Franke 3, Min-Suk Yoon 1, Hans-Christoph Diener 1, Zaza Katsarava 1
PMCID: PMC3476187  PMID: 18330504

Abstract

We investigated the effect of chronic administration of different pain medications on the activity of the serotonin transporter (SERT) in patients with medication overuse headache (MOH). We measured the kinetic of platelet 5-HT uptake (maximal velocity, Vmax and the Michaelis–Menten constant, Km) in patients with overuse of triptans (tMOH, n = 15) or analgesics (aMOH, n = 14) before and after drug withdrawal, as well as in headache-free healthy subjects (n = 15) and patients with episodic migraine (EM, n = 16). Vmax was increased similarly in both, tMOH and aMOH compared to healthy subjects and patients with EM and normalized after withdrawal in parallel to the improvement of headache frequency. Average Km was similar in all groups at baseline and not affected by the withdrawal. The data demonstrate a transient increase of SERT activity in patients with analgesic and triptan induced MOH but do not allow to differentiate whether the increase of serotonin uptake is caused by regular intake of analgesics or triptans or is a consequence of frequent headache attacks.

Keywords: Chronic migraine, Medication overuse headache, MOH, Serotonin uptake, Platelets

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Footnotes

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10194-008-0037-7

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