Positive Health Online

Abstract

GRAZZI, Headache Centre, National Neurological Institute C. Besta, Via Celoria 11, I-20133 Milan, Italy, liciagrazzi@mac.com, has reviewed (8 references) conventional and unconventional approaches to headaches in children and adolescents. Abstract: Headache is one of the most common conditions to affect children and adolescents in industrialised countries. Studies indicate a prevalence of 8% to 60%. In addition, in over 40% of migraine patients the condition begins before 18 years of age. For clinical researchers, headache in the young is of interest because its causes are easier to investigate than in older people. This is because the clinical history is brief, the condition has not had time to become chronic. It is therefore not accompanied by changes in pain neuromodulation and neurotransmission or the development of a chronic pain/stress-related personality. The wide variation in reported headache prevalence in young people may be ascribed to vagueness of diagnostic criteria in studies performed before 1988. The publication of the International Headache Society IHS classification in 1988 for the first time made it possible to accurately diagnose the various headache forms. Since that time a burgeoning number of studies on headache in young people have been published.

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References

Grazzi L. Headache in children and adolescents: conventional and unconventional approaches to treatment. Neurological Sciences 25 Suppl 3: S223-225, Oct 2004.