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Oct. 30, 2006 -- A majority of adolescents with migraines either stop having headaches or develop less-severe ones as they reach adulthood, new research shows.
Of the 55 children studied, 40% had remission by their early 20s, while 20% shifted to less troubling tension-type headaches, according to the report, published in the Oct. 24 issue of Neurology.
However, adolescents whose parents or siblings have migraines may be less likely to outgrow their own.
That's especially true of adolescents initially diagnosed as having migraines without aura -- a form in which the migraines are not accompanied by sensory disturbances such as flashing lights, strange odors, or sounds, according to the research.
On balance, it is good news for children and teens who have migraines, says Rosolino Camarda, MD, of the University of Palermo in Italy, one of the study's researchers. It means most of them won't have to cope with disabling headaches as adults, Camarda says.
Researchers Studied Entire Town
In 1989, Camarda's team screened all primary school students aged 11-14 in the town of Monreale, Italy. They identified 80 adolescents as having probable migraine.
Because some studies have suggested the International Headache Society's criteria are too restrictive for patients under age 15, the researchers not only included adolescents diagnosed with migraine without aura, but also those said to have migrainous disorder or non-classifiable headache.
In 1999, they re-evaluated 55 cases -- 30 women and 25 men who were then aged 21-24. Of these, 28 had initially been diagnosed as having migraine without aura, 14 with migrainous disorder, and 13 with non-classifiable headache.
"Our study shows that over a 10-year period, migraine headaches starting in adolescence have a favorable long-term prognosis," Camarda tells WebMD. "About 40% of our subjects experienced remission, and 20% of them transformed to tension-type headache, which is a less distressing headache."