chronic headache

Migraine in Children Can Lead to Reduced Performance in School

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In an article titled “Migraine and migraine subtypes in preadolescent children Association with school performance,” appearing in Neurology in 2012 by Marco A. Arruda and Marcelo E. Bigal, a discussion is made that children with migraine may have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches. The study looked at 5,671 children ages 5 to 12 from Brazil and found that those with migraine were 30% more likely to have below average school performance than those children with no headaches. The researchers collected information from the student’s teachers on their performance and also completed a questionnaire screening for emotional and behavioral problems. Further, the researchers interviewed parents of the students from medical history and other potential useful information. Of the 5,671 children around 0.6% had chronic migraine occurring 15 or more days per month and 9% had … Read more

Behavioral Issues Come to Children with Migraine

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A new study in Cephalagia shows that children who have migraine headaches are much more likely than other children to also have behavioral difficulties, including social and attention issues, and anxiety and depression. This is no surprise to me. Marco Arruda, director of the Glia Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, together with Marcelo Bigal of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York studied 1,856 Brazilian children aged 5 to 11. The authors were studying how children’s behavioural and emotional symptoms correlate with migraine and tension-type headaches. Children who experience migraine had a much greater overall likelihood of abnormal behavioral scores than controls, especially in social, attention, somatic, anxiety-depressive, and internalizing domains. Children who experience tension-type headaches were affected in the same domains as migraine sufferers, but to a lesser degree. For children with either migraine (23%) or tension-type … Read more

Botox Injections Have Benefit for Chronic Headaches

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A new review and analysis of previous studies has found that botulinum toxin A (“Botox”) injections have a small to modest benefit for those with chronic migraine headaches and chronic daily headache. Botulinum toxin A injections were first proposed as headache treatment when it was observed that patients with chronic headaches receiving cosmetic botulinum injections experienced headache improvement, prompting several case series that suggested benefit. Jeffrey L. Jackson, M.D., M.P.H., of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and colleagues performed a review and meta-analysis to assess the association of botulinum toxin A with reducing headache frequency when used for preventive treatment of migraine, tension, or chronic daily headaches in adults. In the study, headaches were categorized as episodic (less than 15 headaches per month) or chronic (15 or more headaches per month) migraine and episodic or chronic daily or tension … Read more

Cluster Headache Features and Therapeutic Options

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A review article titled “Cluster Headache: Clinical Features and Therapeutic Options” written by Charly Gaul, Hans-Christoph Diener, and Oliver M. Muller published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (vol. 108, issue 33, pages 543-549, 2011) provides an interesting look on new options for those with a chronic refractory cluster headache. The article discusses how 120,000 people in Germany are affected by cluster headache. The attacks are in the periorbital area on one side and last 90 minutes on average. The attacks often posses a circadian and seasonal rhythm. The author lists the diagnostic criteria for cluster headache as from the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-II). First line drugs for treatment include verapamil and cortisione or lithium and topirmate. In addition, short term relief can be obtained by local anesthetics and steroids along the course of the greater occipital nerve. I have … Read more

Headaches after Traumatic Brain Injury Highest in Adolescents and Girls

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A recent study has been conducted by the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and appeared in Pediatrics, vol 129, number 1, January 2012, pages 1 to 9, titled Headache After Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Cohort Study, wirtten by Heidi K. Blume and et al. The article discusses how in the adult population 18% to 33% of those who suffer from traumatic brain injury suffer from headaches 1 year after the injury. In the child population most of the investigations conducted have been small, retrospective, lacked a control, or involved only short term follow up. Chronic headaches with children are associated with interference in social function, parental productivity, and poor quality of life. The study randomly selected 1507 patients with TBI and 495 controls with arm injury (AI) for the study. However, some patients were not reachable, others were inegligible, and … Read more