Indomethacin-Responsive Headaches in Pediatric Age: Nosographic Aspects and Limitations on the use of Indomethacin in Pediatric Population

Abstract

Headaches are a common problem in children and adolescents. Indomethacinresponsive headaches are a poorly known and rare group of primary headaches, with few cases during childhood. These include a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by their response to indomethacin, a non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug which inhibits cyclooxygenase and therefore the production of prostaglandins. Indomethacin-responsive headaches include Valsalva-induced headaches (cough, exercise or sex headache), primary stabbing headache, hypnic headache and the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs) [a group of primary headache disorders that includes cluster headache (CH), paroxysmal hemicrania (PH), hemicrania continua (HC) and short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing/cranial autonomic features (SUNCT/SUNA)]. It seems useful to make a review of the literature about these disorders.