While painkillers bring instant relief to many people, they make other sufferers feel even worse.
Doctors sound the alarm: in the UK alone, up to a million people experience severe headaches caused by too frequent use of painkillers.
All these people fell into a "vicious circle", taking painkillers for headaches, which then caused even more severe headaches.
This warning sounded in a new guideline for doctors at the National Institute for Health and Quality of Care (NICE) for headaches.
However, there is no definite evidence of the prevalence of this disease state. Some researchers claim that this is 1-2% of people, while the World Health Organization says that this figure is closer to 5%.
Most people suffering from this addiction are thought to have started with daily stress headaches or migraines. Headaches then got worse, as people were treated on their own with painkillers.
People whose relatives suffered from tension headaches or migraines may be genetically more vulnerable to drug-related headaches.
So what drugs cause excessive headaches? First of all, it is paracetamol, aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, if used 15 or more days per month, as well as triptans, opioids, ergot drugs or combinations of analgesics taken at least 10 days a month.
