Using a Chatbot to Study Medication Overuse Among Patients Suffering From Headaches

According to the World Health Organization, half the adult population around the world suffers from headaches. Even though this condition remains in most cases innocuous, it can have a major impact on the patient's quality of life but also on public health expenditure. Moreover, most patients m...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Arthur Bézie, Valentin Morisseau, Romain Rolland, Arthur Guillemassé, Benoît Brouard, Benjamin Chaix
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-01
Series:Frontiers in Digital Health
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2022.801782/full
Description
Summary:According to the World Health Organization, half the adult population around the world suffers from headaches. Even though this condition remains in most cases innocuous, it can have a major impact on the patient's quality of life but also on public health expenditure. Moreover, most patients manage their headaches on their own, without consulting a doctor. Therefore, self-medication can eventually lead to drug overuse, and consequently the emergence of a secondary disease called medication-overuse headache (MOH). The detection and follow-up of these unconventional patients represent a major challenge. Some of the latest technology advancements seem to be tailored and fitting for this context. The goal of this study is to investigate medication overuse in French patients suffering from headaches using the chatbot Vik Migraine. Data collection and analysis were assembled from answers to a questionnaire of 28 questions divided into three parts: socio-demographic profile, drug consumption, and medical follow-up. The study showed that medication overuse was often linked to increased headache frequency. Prescription drugs like triptans and opioids, were the most overused drugs among the cohort. This suggests that healthcare professionals could play a critical role in targeting these drugs in prevention of overuse.
ISSN:2673-253X