title: Chronic daily headaches in children and adolescents: a study of clinical characteristics.
abstract: The clinical characteristics of chronic daily headache were studied in 40 children and adolescents, as well as the associated factors responsible for maintenance of the continuous headache pattern. The study of the clinical headache characteristics, showed a female preponderance (75%), mean age of 11 years old at the first consultation, and onset of headache symptomatology at a mean age of 8.5 years old. The average time interval for the evolution of sporadic headache into chronic daily headache was 1.4 years, and psychosocial stressors were present, acutely or chronically, during the period of headache-frequency increase in 47% of the children. Headaches were classified as transformed migraine (65%), mixed pattern (17.5%) and chronic tension-type headache (17.5%). Sixty per cent of patients had mothers with migraine. Data regarding common analgesic use showed an average intake of 11.2 days/month.
authors.affiliation: Child and Adolescence Headache Outpatient Clinic, Department of Neurology, Clinics Hospital of the University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: J L D
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gherpelli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics