Pediatric Chronic Daily Headache

Jean-Christophe      Cuvellier

Abstract

Chronic daily headache (CDH) affects 2 to 4% of adolescent females and 0.8 to 2% of adolescent males. Chronic daily headache is diagnosed when headaches occur more than 4 hours a day, for greater than or equal to 15 headache days per month, over a period of 3 consecutive months, without an underlying pathology. It is manifested by severe intermittent headaches, that are migraine-like, as well as a chronic baseline headache. Silberstein and Lipton divided patients into four diagnostic categories: transformed migraine, chronic tension-type headache, new dailypersistent headache, and hemicrania continua. The second edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders did not comprise any CDH category as such, but provided criteria for all four types of CDH: chronic migraine, chronic tension-type headache, new daily-persistent headache, and hemicrania continua. The International Headache Society. Children and adolescents with chronic daily headache frequently have sleep disturbance, pain at other sites, dizziness, medication-overuse headache and a psychiatric comorbidity (anxiety and mood disorders). Chronic daily headache frequently results in school absence. Successful approaches to treatment include reassurance, education, use of preventative medication, avoidance of analgesics, and helping the child work its way back into a functional daily routine and a regular school schedule.

Keywords: Headache, chronic, migraine, classification, children

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