Headaches Alter Lives of Kids

HealthDay, July, 2003

(HealthDay is the new name for HealthScoutNews.)

For children and teens, migraines can affect their quality of life as much as having arthritis or even cancer, a new study finds.

Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Headache Center evaluated 572 youths between 2 and 18 years of age who had come to the center for treatment, asking them and their parents how their headaches affected their daily life. Of this group, 99 percent had a migraine diagnosis and 40 percent of those had migraines termed "chronic daily headaches," says study author Scott W. Powers, co-director of the headache center.

The findings are published in the July issue of Pediatrics .

Powers and his colleagues then compared the children with headaches to groups of 730 healthy children, 339 children with cancer such as leukemia and 271 children with rheumatologic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. All youngsters and their ...