[The treatment of children with non-migrainous headaches].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of our study is to review non-migrainous headaches (NMH), the pain mechanisms and their treatment, with emphasis on the author's clinical experience.


METHODS
Headaches are commonplace in the daily practice of Paediatrics. About 22% of new patients who came to the Neuropaediatric department as outpatients presented headaches as the reason for their visit. Whenever there is a headache, there must be some pain mechanism involved. These mechanisms are vasodilatation, inflammation, traction and displacement of intracranial structures, sustained muscular tension, or some neurogenic mechanism. Clinical evaluation enables us to diagnose the type of headache and to treat it. Physical and neurological explorations are normal in most children with headache. The classification of syndromes includes acute generalized headache, acute localized headache, acute recurring headache, chronic progressive headache and chronic non-progressive (recurring) headache. Recurring headaches occur frequently in children and are more readily diagnosed from clinical data than by examinations. Routine use of any diagnostic study provides no indication of when the clinical history has no associated risk factors and the examination of the child is normal. Therapy is based on the type of headache. Most headaches in children are due to a vascular mechanism. The author advocates the use of a dietetic treatment in association with the intake of small amounts of caffeine BID.


CONCLUSIONS
The treatment of NMH depends on the kind of syndrome presented but, for the most part, it is very satisfactory for both the patients and their parents.
García-Méndez
L
L
Departamento de Pediatría, Regional Academic Health Center, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, McAllen, TX 78503, USA. leogarcia@pol.net
D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D004032:Diet; D006261:Headache / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010290:Parents; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
D000700:Analgesics; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations