Gastrointestinal symptoms of migraine in children and adolescents

Abstract

Objective: to study the characteristics, frequency of occurrence, and clinical signifi cance of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain associated with a migraine attack, in children and adolescents.Materials and methods. Included 32 patients aged 7 years to 18 years with a diagnosis of episodic migraine. All patients were carefully analyzed for nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain accompanying a migraine attack.Results. Nausea bothered 78% of patients, the median of its intensity corresponded to pronounced. Vomiting accompanied attacks in 68%, the median of its quantity—3 per day. Attack pain in the abdomen developed in 6% of patients. Moreover, the early onset of migraine seizures is associated with severe nausea and vomiting (p = 0,015 and p = 0,043, respectively). Among male patients, direct correlations were obtained between headache intensity and nausea intensity (rS = 0,456, p = 0,029, n = 23) and the amount of vomiting (rS = 0,417, p = 0,048, n = 23).Conclusion.1. With migraine in children and adolescents, nausea and vomiting are often seen as symptoms associated with an attack, while abdominal pain is a rare manifestation of a migraine attack.2. There is a negative relationship between the age of the patient and the intensity of vomiting, the early onset of migraine attacks is often associated with severe nausea and vomiting, and in male patients, the intensity of the headache directly correlates with the intensity of nausea and the amount of vomiting.3. There was no dependence of gastrointestinal manifestations on the patient’s gender, the presence of an aura during an attack, the frequency of attacks and the number of pain days.