Methods of diagnosis of migraine in children
Since children are often unable to describe the symptoms of migraine, keeping a diary of a headache helps to identify symptoms that are difficult to identify when talking with a doctor. Migraine symptoms, which are usually detected not during the initial interview, but by analyzing diary records, include aura (46%), vomiting (50%), nausea (31%), unilateral pain localization (38%), unbearable pain (29%) , photophobia (11%) and photophobia (11%). Thus, diaries in which children record the symptoms of headaches complement the description of migraine.
Keeping these diaries is important not only for diagnosing headaches, but also for determining the frequency of headaches in children. When talking, weekly headache attacks are detected only in 18% of patients, whereas in the study of diaries the number of such patients is 48%.
Another effective method for detecting migraine symptoms in children is the analysis of their drawings. The image in which the child expresses his own feelings of headaches significantly helps to identify the symptoms of migraine and differentiate it from tension headaches (Table 3-14). Thus, in the course of the study, a comparison of children’s drawings depicting headaches with the results of a standard clinical examination was carried out.
In 93% of cases, the pictures showed migraine symptoms, in 83% of patients the content of the pictures was of a migraine-specific nature, which allowed confirming a preliminary diagnosis of migraine in 87% of cases. Further research has shown that a comparison of children’s drawings depicting a headache before and after treatment can help in evaluating its effectiveness.