Teens’ chronic headaches often untreated

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Chronic daily headache is relatively widespread in adolescents, if a Taiwanese study is any indicator. In fact, the problem affects more than 2 percent of girls, but preventative treatment is rare.

Dr. Shuu-Jiun Wang, of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and colleagues examined the prevalence of chronic daily headache, its impact, and related medication use or overuse in 7900 adolescents. The team reports the findings in the medical journal Neurology.

Chronic daily headache was defined as headache occurring at least 15 days per month for an average of at least 2 hours per day, for more than 3 months. Overall, 122 subjects (1.5 percent) met this definition. Among boys in the study, 32 (0.8 percent) had chronic daily headache, while among girls, 90 (2.4 percent) were affected.

A total of 76 headache sufferers (62 percent) had used painkillers in the past year, and 24 of them appeared to have overused medications. In total, 50 (41 percent) had consulted doctors about the problem in the previous year, but only six (5 percent) saw a neurologist. Only one patient was prescribed a headache preventative agent.

The researchers conclude that “recommendations for management of frequent headache have not been widely adopted or effectively translated into routine clinical practice.”

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Andrew D. Hershey, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, and colleagues agree, pointing out that “physicians who treat teens need to recognize and treat chronic daily headache with appropriate acute and preventive therapies.”

SOURCE: Neurology, January 2006.

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