MOTION SICKNESS IN CHILDHOOD MIGRAINE

Background: Migraine is a chronic, progressive, and debilitating disorder that has an impact on the lives of millions of individuals. The origins of the disability can be traced into childhood and adolescence for most adult migraine sufferers. The group of periodic syndromes consists in symptoms related to migraine, thought to be migraine equivalent or precursors. Aim of this study is to assess the role of MS as risk factors for childhood migraine. Materials and methods: 441 subjects (211 Females) aged 6-13 years (mean 9.20; SD 2.42), consecutively referred between October 2007 to March 2009 for primary headaches to pediatric Centers for Headache in Childhood. Control group consisted of 365 subjects (175 F) aged 7-13 years (mean 9.08; SD 3.02). Results: Two groups were not different for age (F=0.390; p=0.539) and sex ratio (Chi-square=0.002; p=0.966). Headache percentage distribution was the following: MoA 38.32%, MA 11.11%, FETTH 16.78%, CTTH 20.63%. Logistic regression shows a greater OR for CVS and MS associated for migraine group (MoA and MA patients), respectively 8.28 (IC95% 2.35 - 29.16) for CVS and 5.22 (IC95% 3.5 - 7.77); moreover, CVS cause a consistent increase in OR of 3.69 (IC95% 2.21 - 6.17) also for headache group (CTTH and FETTH patients). Discussion: Periodic syndromes could be considered the natural precursors of migraine almost but not only in children, as reported in some studies in adulthood.