Primary headaches, attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities in children and adolescents

The Journal of Headache and Pain

Research Article

Nogah C Kerem¹  Isaac Srugo²  Jacob Genizi³  Shiri Gordon⁴  Eli Shahar⁵  Sarit Ravid⁵ 

[1] Pediatric Department, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Adolescent Medicine Unit, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel;Pediatric Department, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel;Pediatric Department, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Pediatric Neurology Unit, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel;Pediatric Neurology Unit, Meyer Children’s Hospital, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Pediatric Neurology Unit, Meyer Children’s Hospital, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel;Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel;

关键词: Migraine;    Tension type headache;    Attention deficit disorder;    Learning disabilities;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1129-2377-14-54

 received in 2013-03-26, accepted in 2013-05-27,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPrimary headaches and Learning difficulties are both common in the pediatric population. The goal of our study was to assess the prevalence of learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder in children and adolescents with migraine and tension type headaches.MethodsRetrospective review of medical records of children and adolescents who presented with headache to the outpatient pediatric neurology clinics of Bnai-Zion Medical Center and Meyer Children’s Hospital, Haifa, during the years 2009–2010. Demographics, Headache type, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities and academic achievements were assessed.Results243 patients met the inclusion criteria and were assessed: 135 (55.6%) females and 108 (44.4%) males. 44% were diagnosed with migraine (35.8% of the males, 64.2% of the females, p = 0.04), 47.7% were diagnosed with tension type headache (50.4% of the males, 49.6% of the females). Among patients presenting with headache for the first time, 24% were formerly diagnosed with learning disabilities and 28% were diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADHD). ADHD was more prevalent among patients with tension type headache when compared with patients with migraine (36.5% vs. 19.8%, p = 0.006). Poor to average school academic performance was more prevalent among children with tension type headache, whereas good to excellent academic performance was more prevalent among those with migraine.ConclusionsLearning disabilities and ADHD are more common in children and adolescents who are referred for neurological assessment due to primary headaches than is described in the general pediatric population. There is an association between headache diagnosis and school achievements.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Genizi et al.; licensee Springer. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.