Overview
Migraines are severe, often bilateral, throbbing headaches commonly located in the temples or frontal regions of the head. They affect different age groups with varying prevalence rates: 2-5% in preschool children, 10% in school-aged children, and 20-30% in adolescent girls (Abu-Arafeh and Russell, 1994; Aromaa et al., 1998). Approximately 20% of migraine patients experience their first attack before the age of 5 (Bille, 1997).
Symptoms by Age Group
Preschool Children:
- Symptoms: Episodes of ill appearance, pallor, abdominal pain, vomiting, and the need for sleep.
- Behavior: Expressed through irritability, crying, rocking, or seeking a dark room to sleep.
Children Aged 5-10 Years:
- Symptoms: Bilateral frontal, temporal, or retro-orbital headache, nausea, abdominal cramping, vomiting, photophobia, phonophobia, and a need to sleep.
- Physical Appearance: Pale with dark circles under the eyes.
Older Children:
- Symptoms: Unilateral, temporal headache with variable pain location and intensity within or between episodes.
Migraine with and without Aura
- Aura Prevalence: 10-20% of children with migraines experience an aura, often after the age of 8.
- Aura Characteristics: Precedes the headache by less than 60 minutes, lasts for 5-20 minutes, may occur without headache.
- Types of Aura: Visual auras (blurred vision, fortification spectra, scotomata, scintillations, black dots, kaleidoscopic patterns, micropsia, macropsia, metamorphopsia), attention loss, confusion, amnesia, agitation, aphasia, ataxia, dizziness, vertigo, paresthesia, or hemiparesis.