New Daily Persistent Headache Is Most Likely to Begin at the Start of School

Abstract

This study was performed to determine if there were a time of year that children were more likely to transition into a chronic daily headache. We retrospectively reviewed records of 103 patients with chronic migraine and 104 patients with new daily persistent headache. Of these, 56 chronic migraine and 92 new daily persistent headache patients were able to identify the specific month in which they began to experience daily headaches. Thirty-nine percent of new daily persistent headache patients had an onset of daily headache in either September or January, months traditionally associated with the start of the school semester in the United States. Only a single patient reported onset in May or June. Data for the transition from episodic to chronic migraine also showed higher rates in September and January, but did not reach statistical significance. These data demonstrate the higher rates of new daily persistent headache onset during school start months and question what factors may be responsible for this association.