Clinical features of migraine: a cross-sectional study in patients aged three to sixty-nine

We investigated 260 consecutive patients classified as migraine cases aged 3-69 at two tertiary headache centres, one for children and adolescents and the other for adults to evaluate the relationship between age and clinical features of migraine cross-sectionally. We only included subjects with definite migraine without or with aura and we excluded subjects with coexisting tension-type headache, medication overuse and/or other clinically relevant disorders. The percentage of males decreased markedly from childhood to adulthood and this affected the evaluation of age-related changes in male patients, as only large differences reached the level of statistical significance. In females, the headache duration and the prevalence of unilateral, pulsating pain, photophobia and phonophobia increased, whereas the prevalence of aggravation by physical activity decreased with age. In conclusion, this cross-sectional, clinic-based study on a strictly defined sample of 260 consecutive patients with definite migraine covering a wide range of age from the very young to the old suggests marked age-related differences of the clinical features of migraine in females and failed to demonstrate similar differences in males due to the small number of adult male migraineurs.