Objective: To compare between symptoms of migraine and Tension Type Headache (TTH) among children and adolescents.
Methods: Medical records of children referred for primary headache to the pediatric neurology clinic at the Bnai Zion Medical Center during the last 10 years, were assessed retrospectively.
Results: Of 110 children age 6-18 (2.2±3), 52% females: 52 (47%) had TTH and 58 (53%) had Migraine (21% of them with Aura). When comparing the group with TTH to the group with migraine no differences were found in relation to headache location, headache duration or time during the onset of symptoms during day. The migraine group presented with a higher intensity of pain, more disturbances to normal activity, more nausea, vomiting, phonophobia, photophobia and more frequent need for analgesia. Children with TTH presented to the clinic after a shorter period since onset of symptoms compared to those with migraine (10.6 month vs 26.2 months), and their headache frequency was higher (17.8/month vs 8.8/month). ADHA was almost twice as common in the migraine group (25.9% Vs. 13.5%) although the difference was not found to be statistically significant probably due to a small sample size.
Conclusions: Primary headaches in our clinic were equally divided to TTH and migraine. TTH could be differentiate from migraine among both children and adolescents by using the IHS criteria.
