THE VALUE OF EEG IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC HEADACHES

To establish the usefulness of electroencephalography (EEG) as a diagn ostic tool in the evaluation of headaches in children, we retrospectiv ely reviewed the records of all children referred to our outpatient ne uropediatric clinic because of recurrent headaches. Of 312 children, 2 57 (82%) underwent EEG tracings: 143 of the children who had had EEG r ecordings were diagnosed as migraineurs. In 31 (12%) of the children, the EEG revealed epileptic activity. The highest incidence of epilepti c EEG activity was found amongst the children with very brief headache s. In 22 (8.6%) of the children, diffuse or focal slowing was detected . The group with migraine headache had a significantly higher incidenc e of slowing than the group with other types of headaches. There was n o correlation between focal EEG abnormalities and brain radioimaging s tudies or clinical course. We conclude that despite the high incidence of epileptic abnormalities, the contribution of EEG to diagnosis and treatment in children with chronic headache is minimal, and should not be routinely prescribed in these children.