The importance of psychological factors in pediatric recurrent headaches

Abstract

Background: Headache is one of the most common health problems of children and adolescents. At least 10% of pediatric population suffer from recurrent headaches without underlying organic/structural etiologies. Social stressors such as conflicts in the family, parental divorce, death/illness of a family member, poor relationships with peers, as well as problems related to school have impact on the occurrence of nonorganic headaches. The aim: of this paper was to determine characteristics of recurrent headaches, psychological, cognitive and emotional factors that can provoke or aggravate somatic problems, and psychological characteristics of pediatric patients with episodic headaches. Material and methods: This retrospective study included children and adolescents with nonorganic recurrent headaches sent to psychological evaluation during the period from January 1, 2014 till December 31,2016. Results: The study cohort comprised 101 patients (40 males and 61 females) aged 12.24 ± 2.71 (range 7-18) years who experienced headaches at least once a week. One third lived in dysfunctional and broken families, 29% had poor relations with peers, and 20% had problems related to school. Difficulties in copying with stress were found in ¼ of patients. Conclusion: Psychological evaluation is important tool for determination psychosocial stressors and nonorganic comorbidities of migraine and tension-type headache, as well as for diagnosis of secondary headaches attributed to psychiatric disorders.

Keywords

• children
• recurrent headaches
• psychological factors