Chronic daily headache in developmental ages: diagnostic issues

Abstract

Chronic daily headache (CDH) in children and adolescents presents features not sufficiently recognized by the current classification system. The aim of our study was to analyze the applicability of adult CDH classification in child and adolescent clinical populations, outlining similarities and differences. In the developmental age, frequent and severe migraine attacks may overlap daily crises of tension-type headache. The clinical onset features are similar to the subsequent (chronic) trend, while in adults, it is more typical that migraine changes over time, taking tension features with almost daily crises. Headache with onset in children or adolescents presents age-related characteristics and the classification system should be better tailored to the peculiarities of this clinical phenomenology. Having a strong diagnostic system is the sine qua non of further investigations in epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, and therapy of CDH.