Migraines Essay

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When a person thinks about migraines they tend to think about an adult who has to suffer from such horrible pain in their head. No one would ever think about a child who endures such pain because they don’t know how many children actually suffer from migraines. Child complaints of headaches are frequent, nearly 70% of children at one point in their young lives have mentioned that their head hurts. What is interesting is the fact that 5 to 15% of children between the ages of 7-14 suffer from migraine headaches and 28% of adolescents exhibit chronic headache symptoms. These numbers are much larger than the percentage of diagnosis of a pediatric migraines. Migraine headaches in children are often unrecognized and misdiagnosed in the primary …show more content…

One older theory suggests that a migraine is a loss of neurological function due to the constriction of the blood vessels in the head and blocking off the blood supply to specific areas in the brain. This theory only explained some migraine symptoms like blindness, photophobia and gastrointestinal issues. Current research cannot show any relationship between the location and the severity of the pain and loss of blood supply. The most recent theory suggests a combination of many changes such as the blood constriction, and a reaction on the nerves in the central nervous system that result in the enlargement of the blood vessels of the meninges outside the brain which then sends the sensation of pain back to the brain producing a migraine headache and a loss of serotonin during the migraine attack itself (Fleener 27-28). Even though a migraine is difficult to define in regards to the functional changes of the body, one thing is for certain, it is in its own class of head pain and is different than the most common types of …show more content…

This is based on the presence of the symptoms and the severity of the pain (Connelly 157). A tension-type headache (TTH) is much more commonly diagnosed in pediatric children and children of adolescent age because there is a lot more information on this problem. A TTH is a headache that occurs fewer than 15 days a month but as infrequent as 12 days per year to as frequent as 179 days per year. With the main onset of headaches occurring in children over the age of 7 (Parisi 491). A TTH can have many of the same symptoms as a migraine to include photophobia but with a migraine the pain is aggravated through physical activity. An episode generally starts with children in the afternoon at school and quite often the child can still carry on with their favorite activities despite their pain. These TTHs are rare or absent during the holidays or an extended period of time off from school. (Parisi 492). This gives reason to believe that the TTH are steaming from some sort of tension while the child is at school and assessment for a diagnosis should occur during this time. Quite the opposite of a TTH, migraine headache pain is so severe that a child would not consider continuing to play even when it is their favorite activity. In general a migraine refers to a headache that can last from 1 to 72 hours and is accompanied by at least one of the

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