Physician resources: Headaches

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Neurological Terms Brain Anatomy Nervous System Disorders Diagnostic Tests

Facts about children and headaches:

• Forty percent (or more) of all children have had a headache by the age of 7.
• Among 7-year-olds, approximately 4 percent have frequent headaches.
• By the age of 15, 75 percent of children have had a headache.
• Only one child in 40,000 is found to have a brain tumor causing the headache.
• About 2 to 10 percent of headaches are due to an underlying brain abnormality.
• Five to 29 percent of children complain of headaches.
• Three percent of children suffer from migraine headaches.

For more information about the treatment of headaches in children and adolescents, click the links below:

• Practice guidelines for community physicians.
• Evaluation of children and adolescents with recurrent headaches (American Academy of Neurology).
• Evidence-based guidelines for migraine headaches (American Academy of Neurology).
• Pharmacological treatment of migraine headache in children and adolescents (American Academy of Neurology).