Migraines in children
Migraine is a common disorder in children with up to 5% of all children experiencing recurrent headaches consistent with migraine.
Manifestations of migraine may vary according to patient age:
- Infants may present with only episodic "head banging"
- Preschool children often have episodes involving: abdominal pain, vomiting, and the need to go to sleep; they may exhibit pain by irritability, crying, rocking, or seeking a dark room in which to sleep
- Children aged 5-10 years typically have bifrontal, bitemporal, or retro-orbital headache
- Older children may experience increasing headache intensity and duration; a pulsating or throbbing character to the headache; and a shift to a unilateral, temporal location
Presentations of migraine in children may be similar to adult presentations and may include headache, with or without aura, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, photophobia, and relief with sleep. However, several variations of migraine are unique to children and rarely if ever occur in adults. In young children, migraine may present with prominent non-headache symptoms (migraine without headache, or acephalalgic migraine), or neurologic symptoms (aura) may be much more prominent than the headache.
Recognized childhood syndromes assumed to be related to migraine include the following:
- Benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood
- Abdominal migraine
- Cyclic vomiting of childhood
- Acute confusional migraine (acute confusional state)
Basilar migraine (particularly in adolescent girls) may present with prominent dizziness and near-syncope or syncope, with or without a subsequent headache. Hemiplegic migraine may present in early childhood and occasionally may continue into adulthood.
Migraine variants may cause significant disability from loss of school time for the child, loss of work time for parents, and general disruption of family function.
Management consists of identifying triggering factors, providing pain relief, and considering prophylaxis.
Get frequent migraines? Act now!
If you or a member of your family suffer from frequent migraines then we may be able to help. Simply contact us to book an appointment for assessment and treatment at one of our clinics (or if you have any questions).
