School functioning and chronic tension headaches in adolescents: improvement only after multidisciplinary evaluation.
Pediatric patients with chronic tension-type headaches often experience significant school impairment. Although some improve after treatment with a neurologist, many require more comprehensive treatment. The authors examined whether school functioning and attendance improved after a multidisciplinary evaluation focusing on a return to functioning despite headaches. They also examined whether patients' headaches improved. Participants were 47 adolescents ages 12-17, most of whom had not responded to past neurological treatment. Adolescents completed the PedsQL School Functioning Scale at evaluation, 2-3 months later, and again 6 months after evaluation. Information regarding headache frequency, severity and duration, and school attendance was obtained from medical records. Using repeated measures analyses of variance, the authors found that school functioning and attendance improved significantly from evaluation to follow-up, as did headache frequency and duration. An emphasis on returning to functioning can help patients with chronic, difficult-to-treat tension-type headaches improve in their school functioning and experience fewer, shorter headaches.
Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, 333 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. robyn.claar@childrens.harvard.edu
Robyn Lewis
RL
Claar
Karen J
KJ
Kaczynski
Anna
A
Minster
Lori
L
McDonald-Nolan
Alyssa A
AA
LeBel
D000041:Absenteeism; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018781:Tension-Type Headache / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D016896:Treatment Outcome