Abstract

Migraine and epilepsy are two of the most common disorders observed in child neurology. Migraines are certainly more commonly seen in children than epilepsy. Epilepsy is a relatively less common condition in children and adoles- cents with a prevalence of about 0.5%, which is approximately 20 times less common than migraine. Peri-ictal heada- ches are very common and migralepsy is very rare because the threshold required for seizure onset and propagation is higher than that of migraine onset. Both entities that share many clinical features, arise from the cerebral cortex modulated by subcortical connections. Although sharing similar clinical features, there are distinguishing historic aspects that may help define one condition from the other. However, the clinical distinction between migraine and epilepsy can be difficult and diagnosis problematic. Anticonvulsants that are designed for epilepsy are typically also efficacious in the prevention of migraine and when used can often reduced the frequency of events and improve quality of life. Therefore, it is important for the practi- tioner to ask about headaches in epileptic patients and to consider about epileptic events in headache patients.