BackgroundHuman and animal models suggest that central sensitisation plays a role in medication-overuse headache (MOH). We aimed to study pain perception in MOH patients before and a year after withdrawal.MethodsWe examined pain perception in 35 MOH patients before and two, six and 12 months after detoxification. For baseline comparison, we tested 40 healthy controls. We measured cephalic and extra-cephalic pressure-pain thresholds and supra-threshold pressure-pain scores and extra-cephalic pain thresholds, supra-threshold pain scores and temporal summation for electrical stimulation.ResultsOf the 35 patients, 21 patients completed the entire study and remained cured of MOH. Statistically significant differences between patients and healthy controls were found in cephalic pressure-pain thresholds (137.3 kPa vs. 170 kPa, p