Complementary and alternative treatments for childhood headaches.
Parents frequently ask health care professionals to provide "natural" migraine care for their children and often use herbs, minerals, vitamins, and supplements to treat their children's migraines, thinking that these over-the-counter alternatives are less toxic than prescription medications. The only randomized controlled trial on any alternative treatment for pediatric migraine is for magnesium, and the results were equivocal. Results of two other uncontrolled trials of magnesium, one for migraine and one for episodic tension-type headache, were positive. There is one positive uncontrolled trial each for coenzyme Q10 and Petasites for prevention of pediatric migraine. There are no trials to indicate the safety or efficacy of riboflavin or feverfew for pediatric headache.
Tepper
Stewart J
SJ
Center for Headache and Pain, T33, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. sjtepper@aol.com