Periodic syndrome and migraine in children and adolescents

Many reports in the literature seem to confirm the hypothesis that the symptoms of periodic syndrome are precursors or the equivalent of migraine: the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of periodic syndrome in a group of children and adolescents suffering from migraine in comparison with that observed in various control groups. We considered seven symptoms: recurrent vomiting and abdominal pain, migrating limb pain, vertigo, recurrent hyperthermia with no visible cause, sleep disturbances and eating disorders. The study involved 171 children divided into four groups; 42 migraineurs; 37 subjects with chronic nervous pathologies but no psychosomatic symptoms; 46 subjects with a known psychosomatic disease, and 46 healthy subjects. The prevalence of the symptoms in the different control groups was different, although the pattern was more similar in the migraineurs and psychosomatic patients than in the other control groups. The development continuum of the syndrome may support the view that periodic syndrome is predictive of the subsequent development of a psychosomatic pathology.