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Understanding childhood headaches
Their study, published in a recent issue of Neurology, involved 577 children ages 3 to 18 who were referred to a Headache Center for treatment. Of those, 200 were found to suffer 15 or more headaches a month.
Results showed that 92 percent of the kids with CDH had headaches that could be clinically classified as migraines. Three subgroups emerged from the study: 37 percent had frequent, but not daily, headaches; 43.5 percent reported episodic daily headaches; and 19.5 percent had a continuous headache. Most of the children reported headaches that involved moderate to severe pain, and pain was most often characterized as throbbing. Other symptoms most often associated with the headaches were nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound.
Published on 12th April 2002 |
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Copyright
2009, Chennai Interactive
Business Services (P) Ltd. |
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Migraine headaches are common in children: some estimates put the number of kids affected as high as 10 percent, rising to as much as 28 percent for those between the ages of 15 and 18. Little research exists though on how these headaches affect kids on a daily basis. Now, researchers from Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati have completed a study aimed at characterizing chronic headaches in children.
These were classified as having chronic daily headaches, or CDH. Nearly this entire group had a normal neurological examination.
Frequent use of medication occurred in about 38 percent of the CDH patients, with about 61 percent of that group using pain relievers on a daily basis and about 71 percent at least five times a week. Nearly all of the children in the study (those with and without CDH) reported that their headaches limited their activities and that the headaches worsened with activity. Interestingly, kids in the CDH group reported being able to function better at school than those not in that group, suggesting that kids with frequent headaches learn to cope with the condition. Still, say researchers, kids with CDH were functioning at only 50 percent of their ability while suffering a headache at school.
