Abstracts

Epilepsy and headache are both frequently in childhood. The objective of this study is to verify the comorbidity between headache and epilepsy in childhood.
This study was conducted at the childhood epilepsy clinic of our university hospital. Fifty children between 5 and 18 years-old were interviewed according to a semi-structured questionnaire. The headache type was classified according to the International Headache Society Classification. Data was compared with the findings of a control group composed by children without epilepsy, that were siblings of epileptic children.
Twenty-three (46%) patients presented headache, as opposed to one (2.5%) in the control group (p[lt]0.01). Ten (43.5%) presented migraine, four (17.4%) tension type headache and in nine (39.1%) the type of headache could not be established. In 9/23 (40,9%) a temporal relationship between headache and epilepsy was present, six post-ictal and three pre-ictal. (p[lt]0.05). Gender, type of seizure and family history of headache were not different in the groups of patients with or without headache. Children older than 10 years-old (54.5%) and those with idiopathic epilepsies (65.2%) presented headache more frequently (p[lt]0.01). The headache usually started after the epilepsy (p[lt]0,01). The pattern of the visual aura was different in patients with migraine and in those with epilepsy.
Headache and epilepsy are a common comorbidity in childhood, mostly in children older than 10 years-old presenting idiopathic epilepsy. The headache usually starts after the epilepsy and is more frequently post-ictal. Our findings suggest that maybe there is a common pathophysiology between headache and epilepsy in childhood.
[Supported by: FAPESP]