Childhood Migraine in General Practice: Clinical Features and Characteristics

Abstract

Previous studies have evaluated the clinical features and characteristics of migraine in selected children attending hospital clinics. There have, however, been no community studies on the prevalence and characteristics of migraine in children aged 3-11 years in British general practice. In this study, a total of 1,083 children (from 1,104 registered with a general practice) and their parents were interviewed. Possible migraine sufferers took part in an extended interview that assessed various characteristics of the patients and their attacks. The survey showed that migraine attacks started in infancy, and migrainous children were more likely to have mothers with migraine. Some clinical features were found to be age-dependent. Compared with similar hospital surveys there was a lower frequency of attacks recorded but the prevalence of aura was similar to that found in previous studies.

To Assess Migraine Headache in Children: A Clinical Study

“…We found that common symptoms recorded were visual disturbances, nausea/ vomiting, vertigo and combination of above. This is similar to Mortimer et al 7 We found that associated symptoms were psychological stress, physical strain, watching TV, sunlight, hunger and combination of all. This is in agreement to Rossy LN.…”

An Epidemiological Study of Migraine with Aura in the San Severo General Population: A Pilot Research Project of Cooperation between Neurologists and General Practitioners

“…However, in this study on the migraine pattern of health care use, there was no differentiation between that of MA and migraine without aura (MO). Moreover, most studies on headache in the general practice are conducted on children and teenagers [6, 7]. …”

Neurology in adolescence

“…Conseqüentemen-te, não procurava cuidados médicos. Hoje, sabe-se que cerca de 10% das crianças aos 10 anos, tanto meninos como meninas, sofrem de enxaqueca, assim como cerca de 15% das adolescentes do sexo feminino, sendo, nos EUA, uma das principais causas de absenteísmo escolar 2,4 . Proporção semelhante de adolescentes sofre de cefaléia de tensão 5 .…”

“…A enxaqueca com e sem aura exigia, para sua respectiva definição, que fossem obedecidas as particularidades expostas nas Tabelas 1 e 2. Entretanto, autores que se dedicam ao estudo da dor de cabeça infantil 2,4,[7][8][9] , inclusive em nosso meio 10,11 , têm demonstrado que esses critérios precisam ser adaptados aos pacientes dessa faixa etária, principalmente no que diz respeito à duração e à localização da dor. Os pacientes pediátricos não apresentam, habitualmente, hemicrania -podendo a dor se situar na região frontal ou ser bitemporal, entre outras localizações -, e as crises costumam ser de menor duração -1 hora ou menos.…”