Headaches of childhood age

Headache is the frequent complaint which is encountered in the childhood age group that occured to be by pain sensitive processes within or out of scalp by various causes. As this complaint may essentially due to from the santral nerve system, it may be the sign of disorders of the other parts of human body. The effect of headache on child which plays important roles on memory, academic performance, personality, social relationship, and school attandance depends on etiology, frequency and intensity of headache. In this study it is aimed to investigate frequency, etiology, response to treatment and prognosis of headache in the period of childhood on the basis of diagnostic criterion International Comitee of Headache Disorders second edition 2004 (ICHD-II). Out of total 5300 patients, 133 patients who were diagnosed as headache disorders on the basis of diagnostic criterion ICHD-II 2004 with complaint of headache referred to Pediatric Department of Neurology of Fırat Medicine Faculty of Fırat University between January 2000 and March 2006 were taken to the study. Patients were classifed under 3 age groups as; 3?6 years, 7?12 years and 13?17 years to be evaluated. 2.9 percent of children with headache have been consisted of the patient group of pediatric neurology. More than half of the patients were children with migraine (n: 77, % 58) and % 58.6 of patients (n: 78) have been consisted of 7?12 years of age group. Decreased in academic performance with headache complaint were informed in about half of the patients (n: 44, % 47.8). We have found the dominance of MRI to CT for organic pathology of brain in this group of patients (P<0.05). But neither of the neuro-imaging processes had shown significant benefit in contribution to diagnose the etiology of headache. An important number of these patients (n: 111, 83.5 %) have benefitted from any or few of these treatment methods to relieve headache. The outcomes of this study reveals that headache is a frequent encountered disorder in childhood which may affect the quality of life and academic performance. With an appropriate physical and neurological examination, the neurophysiologic and neuro-imaging requirements may be decreased and eventually childhood headache may be a curable problem with high ratio. Key words: Headache, etiology, migraine, treatment, child.