PSYCHOSOCIAL FUNCTIONING IN SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH RECURRENT HEADACHES

The psychosocial functioning of 113 schoolchildren (8 to 15 years old) reporting headaches at least once it month was compared to a group of headache-free control subjects matched for sex and age. Thirteen perc ent of the headache sufferers had migraine headaches, 28% had episodic tension-type headaches, 30% had chronic tension-type headaches, and 2 9% had migraine coexisting with tension-type headaches. Overall, the h eadache sufferers experienced more somatic complaints, stress, and psy chological symptoms, in addition to being absent from school (due to i llness), more often and reported fewer caring persons as compared to h eadache-free controls. Although few differences between the four heada che groups emerged in the children's psychosocial functioning levels, children with migraine coexisting with tension-type headaches had sign ificantly more frequent somatic complaints than those having episodic tension-type headaches. In addition, children with migraine or migrain e coexisting with tension-type headaches were more often absent from s chool than those having tension-type headaches only. A significant but weak relationship between children's headache severity and their soma tic complaints was noted.