Migraine pain location at onset and during established headaches in children and adolescents: a clinic-based study from eastern India.
Literature documenting the location of pain at onset of migraine attacks and during established headaches in children and adolescents is sparse. Through a prospective study (2003-2005) of 200 children with migraine (ICHD-2: 1.1 and 1.2.1), we set out to document (i) the site of onset of pain and (ii) the location of pain during established attacks (on >50% of occasions) through semistructured interviews of patients and parents. Of the 200 children, the male:female ratio was 118 : 82 (1 : 0.69), the age range was 7-15 years (mean 11.8 years) and the duration of migraine 6 months to 4 years (mean 1.6 years). Ninety-three percent of subjects were ethnic Bengalis from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, capital city Calcutta. Migraine types were: 1.1, 197 (98.5%); 1.2.1, three (1.5%). Location of pain at onset: 20.5% of subjects had unilateral onset; of these, 26.8% had eye pain, 65.9% frontal and 12.3% temporal pain. Thirty-three percent had bilateral location of pain, mostly bifrontal or ocular. None had vertex onset pain. However, in 35% of subjects, pain was holocranial at onset. Only 11.5% experienced pain in the occipito-cervical region at onset. Location of established headaches: in 53.7% of subjects with unilateral onset, headaches subsequently became holocranial. Hemicranial headaches occurred in only 19.5%. Of bilateral onset pains, 57.8% also became holocranial subsequently. In all, 73.5% of children ultimately experienced holocranial headaches. This study documents pain location at onset and during established headaches in children with migraine largely from a specific ethnic group.
Chakravarty
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Department of Neurology, Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, 59 Beadon Street, Calcutta 700 006, India. saschakra@yahoo.com
Mukherjee
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Roy
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D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018710:Pain Clinics; D010147:Pain Measurement