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Children
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Headache in Children and Adolescents
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Headache in Children and Adolescents

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Neurology & Neurodevelopmental Disorders".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 15461

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Boris Zernikow

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. German Paediatric Pain Centre, Children’s and Adolescents’ Hospital Datteln, Witten/Herdecke University, 45711 Datteln, Germany
2. Children’s Pain Therapy and Paediatric Palliative Care, Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, 45711 Datteln, Germany
Interests: pain management; migraine; palliative medicine; pain medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Alyssa Lebel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Headache Program, Hope Avenue Waltham, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Interests: chronic headache; neuroimaging of networks related to migraine in the developing brain; clinical evaluation of autonomic nervous system changes in patients with headache; headache and sleep
Dr. Scott A. Holmes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Interests: neuroimaging; pain; multisensory integration in non-clinical and clinical settings; longitudinal brain imaging and behavioral analysis of pediatric brain injury; neuroimaging techniques; pain mechanisms

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chronic headache in childhood is an increasing problem in our society and a challenge for our healthcare systems. Children and adolescents suffer mainly from migraines and tension-type headaches. However, increasingly, children report daily headaches with emotional co-morbidities and an overuse of analgesics. Consequences are significant for each child, their families, and for society. Children with chronic headache often miss school, which may result in their academic performance being worse than that of their classmates without headache. Healthcare systems spend a significant amount of money treating these patients. If treatment is not effective, our society bears the burden of young adults who continue to suffer from headache. In this situation, we welcome scientific studies on therapeutic strategies, from prophylactic measures to multimodal treatment options, that can help to address this problem, relieve suffering, and stop the silent pandemic of childhood headache.

Prof. Dr. Boris Zernikow
Prof. Alyssa Lebel
Dr. Scott A. Holmes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • headache
  • migraine
  • children
  • adolescent
  • triptans
  • interdisciplinary treatment
  • psychological treatment
  • prophylactic measures
  • pain education

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 223 KiB  
Article
Development and Feasibility of the Headache-Related Light and Sound Sensitivity Inventories in Youth
by Megan Silvia and Allison M. Smith
Children 2021, 8(10), 861; https://doi.org/10.3390/children8100861 - 28 Sep 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1580
Abstract
Youth with chronic headache disorders often experience sensitivities to light and sound that trigger or exacerbate their headaches and contribute to functional disability. At present, there are no known validated measures for assessing these sensitivities and their impact on functioning in youth with [...] Read more.
Youth with chronic headache disorders often experience sensitivities to light and sound that trigger or exacerbate their headaches and contribute to functional disability. At present, there are no known validated measures for assessing these sensitivities and their impact on functioning in youth with chronic headaches. This pilot study sought to develop and assess the feasibility of measures of headache-related light and sounds sensitivities in youth with chronic headache disorders. The initial item pools were generated via an intensive literature review, an informal quality improvement project, and a panel of experts in chronic pain. Then, youth (n = 20) presenting for clinical evaluation of headaches completed the revised items as well as assessments of the measures’ feasibility and items’ understandability. A subset (n = 2) completed formal cognitive interviews as well. The resulting 20-item Headache-Related Light Sensitivity Inventory (HALSI) and 18-item Headache-Related Sound Sensitivity Inventory (HASSI) for youth assess headache-related sensory sensitivities, as well as related emotional and behavioral responses. Through the iterative incorporation of feedback, these measures appear to be feasible to administer and understandable tools for assessing light and sound sensitivity in youth with chronic headache disorders. Once they are empirically validated, they have the potential to serve as important tools for understanding the patient experience, developing interventions, and assessing treatment response. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Headache in Children and Adolescents)
12 pages, 263 KiB  
Article
Adolescents’ Explanatory Models for Headaches and Associations with Behavioral and Emotional Outcomes
by Verena Neß, Anna Könning, Gerrit Hirschfeld and Julia Wager
Children 2021, 8(3), 234; https://doi.org/10.3390/children8030234 - 18 Mar 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2170
Abstract
More than one-third of adolescents experience recurrent headaches. Usually, these headaches are of primary origin and modulated by different biological and psychosocial factors. While parents are often consulted in scientific research and medical care about the nature of their child’s headache, it is [...] Read more.
More than one-third of adolescents experience recurrent headaches. Usually, these headaches are of primary origin and modulated by different biological and psychosocial factors. While parents are often consulted in scientific research and medical care about the nature of their child’s headache, it is unclear to what extent parents and their children agree upon the factors that cause them. Adolescents’ own attributions of headaches have rarely been investigated, and it is unclear how those attributions affect behavioral and emotional outcomes. In the present study, adolescents with chronic headaches (N = 248) and their parents (N = 120) rated the influence of various biological and psychosocial factors on the adolescents’ headaches. Associations between these factors and several behavioral and emotional outcomes were examined. The most frequently reported factor by both samples was stress; however, concordance between parents and adolescents was generally low. The factor “other disease” was significantly associated with medication consumption and school absence. This study is one of the first to provide insights into adolescents’ own attributions of headaches. Furthermore, the significant associations of the factor with behavioral outcomes reveal the importance of understanding personal explanatory models of headache. Future studies should examine associations between subjective headache causes and the individual’s experience of the disorder to improve headache interventions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Headache in Children and Adolescents)
10 pages, 1044 KiB  
Article
Short-Term and Long-Term Effectiveness of Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment for Children and Adolescents with Chronic Headache: A Longitudinal Observation Study
by Meltem Dogan, Boris Zernikow and Julia Wager
Children 2021, 8(3), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/children8030220 - 12 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2004
Abstract
Pediatric chronic headache causes significant impairment to those affected and bears the risk of aggravation into adulthood. Intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) was found to positively affect pain-related and emotional outcomes in pediatric patients with chronic pain up to 4 years after treatment. [...] Read more.
Pediatric chronic headache causes significant impairment to those affected and bears the risk of aggravation into adulthood. Intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) was found to positively affect pain-related and emotional outcomes in pediatric patients with chronic pain up to 4 years after treatment. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of IIPT on solely pediatric chronic headache patients. As part of a longitudinal observation study, n = 70 children and adolescents with chronic headache receiving IIPT were included, of which n = 47 completed the assessment at four assessment time points: before treatment (PRE) and at three follow-ups (6-MONTH FOLLOW-UP, 1-YEAR FOLLOW-UP, and 4-YEAR FOLLOW-UP). Pain-related (pain intensity, pain-related disability, school absence), as well as psychological outcome domains (anxiety, depression), were investigated. The results support the short-term and long-term efficacy of IIPT for pediatric chronic headache patients regarding the pain-related outcome measures by significant reductions from PRE to all follow-up measure points. For anxiety and depression, only short-term improvements were found. Future studies should specifically focus on the identification of methods to consolidate the beneficial short-term effects of IIPT on psychological outcome domains in the long term. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Headache in Children and Adolescents)
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8 pages, 869 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Outcome of Indomethacin Treatment in Pediatric Patients with Paroxysmal Hemicrania—A Case Series
by Maximilian David Mauritz, Anna Enninger, Christine Wamsler, Julia Wager and Boris Zernikow
Children 2021, 8(2), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/children8020101 - 3 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3418
Abstract
Paroxysmal Hemicrania is a rare form of primary headache in children and adolescents, belonging to the group of trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias. Patients suffer from severe, short-lasting unilateral headaches accompanied by symptoms of the autonomic system on the same side of the head. The [...] Read more.
Paroxysmal Hemicrania is a rare form of primary headache in children and adolescents, belonging to the group of trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias. Patients suffer from severe, short-lasting unilateral headaches accompanied by symptoms of the autonomic system on the same side of the head. The short duration of attacks distinguishes Paroxysmal Hemicrania from other trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias. Indomethacin is the treatment of choice, and its effectiveness provides a unique diagnostic criterion. However, the long-term outcomes in children are highly underreported. In this case-series, n = 8 patients diagnosed with Paroxysmal Hemicrania were contacted via telephone 3.1 to 10.7 years after initial presentation. A standardized interview was conducted. n = 6 patients were headache-free and no longer took indomethacin for 5.4 ± 3.4 years. The mean treatment period in these patients was 2.2 ± 1.9 years. Weaning attempts were undertaken after 1.7 ± 1.3 months; in n = 3 patients, more than one weaning attempt was necessary. n = 2 patients were still taking indomethacin (4.5 and 4.9 years, respectively). Both unsuccessfully tried to reduce the indomethacin treatment (two and six times, respectively). Adverse effects appeared in n = 6 (75%) patients and led to a discontinuation of therapy in n = 2 patients. Our long-term follow-up suggests that in a substantial proportion of pediatric patients, discontinuing indomethacin therapy is possible without the recurrence of Paroxysmal Hemicrania. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Headache in Children and Adolescents)
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Review

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12 pages, 298 KiB  
Review
Pediatric Episodic Migraine with Aura: A Unique Entity?
by Hannah F.J. Shapiro and Alyssa Lebel
Children 2021, 8(3), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/children8030228 - 17 Mar 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2725
Abstract
Migraine headache is a common cause of pain and disability in children and adolescents and is a major contributor to frequently missed school days and limitations in activities. Of children and adolescents with migraine headache, approximately one-third have migraine with aura (MA). MA [...] Read more.
Migraine headache is a common cause of pain and disability in children and adolescents and is a major contributor to frequently missed school days and limitations in activities. Of children and adolescents with migraine headache, approximately one-third have migraine with aura (MA). MA is often considered to be similar to migraine without aura (MO), and thus, many studies do not stratify patients based on the presence of aura. Because of this, treatment recommendations are often analogous between MA and MO, with a few notable exceptions. The purpose of this review is to highlight the current evidence demonstrating the unique pathophysiology, clinical characteristics, differential diagnosis, co-morbidities, and treatment recommendations and responses for pediatric MA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Headache in Children and Adolescents)

Other

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10 pages, 1095 KiB  
Case Report
Differential Diagnosis of Cyclic Vomiting and Periodic Headaches in a Child with Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt: Case Report of Chronic Shunt Overdrainage
by Maximilian David Mauritz, Carola Hasan, Lutz Schreiber, Andreas Wegener-Panzer, Sylvia Barth and Boris Zernikow
Children 2022, 9(3), 432; https://doi.org/10.3390/children9030432 - 18 Mar 2022
Viewed by 3098
Abstract
Fourteen months after the implantation of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter, a six-year-old boy developed recurrent, severe headaches and vomiting every three weeks. The attacks were of such severity that hospitalizations for analgesic and antiemetic therapies and intravenous rehydration and electrolyte substitution were repeatedly [...] Read more.
Fourteen months after the implantation of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter, a six-year-old boy developed recurrent, severe headaches and vomiting every three weeks. The attacks were of such severity that hospitalizations for analgesic and antiemetic therapies and intravenous rehydration and electrolyte substitution were repeatedly required. The patient was asymptomatic between the attacks. After an extensive diagnostic workup—including repeated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neurosurgical examinations—common differential diagnoses, including shunt overdrainage, were ruled out. The patient was transferred to a specialized pediatric pain clinic with suspected cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). Despite intensive and in part experimental prophylactic and abortive pharmacological treatment, there was no improvement in his symptoms. Consecutive MRI studies reinvestigating the initially excluded shunt overdrainage indicated an overdrainage syndrome. Subsequently, the symptoms disappeared after disconnecting the shunt catheter. This case report shows that even if a patient meets CVS case definitions, other differential diagnoses must be carefully reconsidered to avoid fixation error. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Headache in Children and Adolescents)
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