Updated overview of pediatric headache and migraine

Abstract

Headache is a common complaint, occurring in >90% of school age children. The frequency increases with increasing age and the etiologies range from tension to life-threatening infections and brain tumors. Migraine is the most frequent cause of acute and recurrent headaches in children. The overall prevalence of non-migraine headaches is 10-25%. A thorough history, physical and neurological examination, and appropriate diagnostic testing if indicated will enable the physician to distinguish migraine and tension headaches from those of a secondary etiology. In this review, we present an updated overview of childhood headaches. The recently developed International Classification of Headache Disorders, second edition ICHD-II will be summarized. The Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology AAN and the Practice Committee of Child Neurology Society CNS recommendations for neuroimaging of children with recurrent headaches concluded that routine neuroimaging is not indicated if the neurological examination is normal. Neuroimaging should be considered in children with recent onset of severe headache, change in the headache type, associated focal neurological features, or seizures. Trends in the management guidelines will be highlighted.