Abstract

Background
Headaches are very common during childhood and become increasingly more frequent during adolescence. It should be carefully assessed and managed due to the disability associated with headache is substantial and includes a diminished quality of life, related to physical and mental health as well as impaired achievement of academic work, memory, personality, and interpersonal relation. This is the pilot study of prevalence, characteristics, and patterns of health care used for headache in korea. Objects and Methods: To investigate prospectively the headache's distribution and characteristics in a children & adolescence. Conducted for 7 months into 7 pediatric services in areas of Seoul & Kyungki province with 280 patients of recurrent headaches over 3 months. Protocol of evaluation(form of questionnaires, physical and neurologic examination, laboratory and neuroradiologic studies) was standardized. We used the 2nd edition of the international classification of headache disorders. Results: In our ongoing multicentric prospective study, we examined 280 consecutive children and adolescents of 4 to 18 years old. Primary headache was 244(87.1%) composed with mostly 198(70.7%) of migraine including 88(31.4%) of migraine without aura, 43(15.4%) of migraine with aura, 7(2.5%) of childhood periodic syndrome, 1(0.4%) of retinal migraine, 9(3.2%) of only presenting with chronic migraine features, and 50(17.9%) of probable migraine. Of these, 60(21.4%) had headaches on more than 15 days per month for 3 months. Conclusions: Primary headache especially migraine is most common in classification of recurrent headaches of children. Chronic daily headaches are also frequent in children with need of management. More detailed classification and specific managements about headaches in children are required.