Therapy of headaches in childhood and adolescence

Background. Headaches are one of the most common health problems of childre n and adolescents, afflicting between 50-90% of the pediatric population in some form sometimes during their first two decades of life. Due to changin g prevalence rates, more or less complex classification systems, inconsiste nt therapy responses with great inter- and intraindividual variabilities an d high placebo response rates, pediatric headache syndromes are frequently thought to be too difficult for the outpatient evaluation and treatment in clinical practice. Therapy and prognosis. However, with the introduction of the International Headache Society classification system, the continuously expanding knowledg e about the pathophysiology of different headache syndromes and the develop ment of new symptomatic as well as causative treatment options - covering b oth:pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches - a pragmatic diagnostic work up and the development of specific treatment schedules for pediatric headache patients is now possible.