[Therapy of headaches in childhood and adolescence]
M A Uberall1, H Denecke, B Kröner-Hedwig
1Klinik für Kinder und Jugendliche, Universität Erlangen.
Insights
Pediatric headaches are common, affecting up to 90% of children. Advances in classification and treatment now allow for effective outpatient management of childhood headache syndromes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Headache Medicine
Context:
- Headaches affect 50-90% of children and adolescents, presenting significant clinical challenges.
- Previous difficulties in diagnosis and treatment were due to variable prevalence, complex classifications, and inconsistent therapeutic responses.
Purpose:
- To outline a pragmatic approach to the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric headache syndromes.
- To highlight how updated knowledge and new therapies enable effective outpatient care.
Summary:
- The International Headache Society classification system provides a framework for diagnosis.
- Expanding knowledge of pathophysiology and new pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments facilitate specific treatment plans.
- Outpatient evaluation and management of pediatric headaches are now feasible and effective.
Impact:
- Improved diagnostic accuracy for pediatric headache disorders.
- Development of tailored, evidence-based treatment strategies for children and adolescents.
- Enhanced clinical practice for managing common pediatric headache conditions.
Background:
Headaches are one of the most common health problems of children and adolescents, afflicting between 50-90% of the pediatric population in some form sometimes during their first two decades of life. Due to changing prevalence rates, more or less complex classification systems, inconsistent therapy responses with great inter- and intraindividual variabilities and high placebo response rates, pediatric headache syndromes are frequently thought to be too difficult for the outpatient evaluation and treatment in clinical practice.
Therapy And Prognosis:
However, with the introduction of the International Headache Society classification system, the continuously expanding knowledge about the pathophysiology of different headache syndromes and the development of new symptomatic as well as causative treatment options - covering both: pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches - a pragmatic diagnostic work up and the development of specific treatment schedules for pediatric headache patients is now possible.
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