Growing Pains May Be Precursor to Migraine

MONDAY, Sept. 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Growing pains (GP) among children and adolescents may be a precursor to or comorbidity with migraine, according to a study published online Sept. 6 in Headache.

Raimundo Pereira Silva-Néto, Ph.D., from the Federal University of the Parnaíba Delta in Brazil, and colleagues reviewed and characterized GP in children and adolescents as a precursor to/comorbidity with migraine in a cross-sectional longitudinal cohort. A sample of 100 children/adolescents born to mothers with migraine was recruited, maintaining the ratio of 1:1 for the group with GP and controls; the groups were followed for five years.

Seventy-eight patients completed the study, including 42 from the GP group and 36 controls. The researchers found that 76 and 22 percent of patients with GP and controls, respectively, had headache fulfilling the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition diagnostic criteria for migraine without aura or probable migraine. The pains persisted in 14 percent of the sample who initially had GP and appeared in 39 percent of those who were initially asymptomatic.

"Recurrent episodes of GP are described in association with migraine, with an increased prevalence in children with migraine or children of mothers with migraine," the authors write. "Such a relationship suggests that both growing pains and migraine may have a common pathogenesis and etiology."

Abstract/Full Text