migraine, a poorly identified power illness, doesn’t spare youngsters

“Misunderstood, little taught within the medical world, migraine in youngsters considerations earlier than puberty as many little boys as little women”, defined Thursday Anne Donnet, neurologist, head of the Heart for the analysis and therapy of ache on the Timone hospital in Marseille.

actual illness

Nevertheless, migraine is an actual illness, which is characterised by the common and repetitive incidence of violent complications, generally related to vomiting.

It’s from the primary menstrual cycles that the frequency of migraines turns into extra necessary in women.

For Maïwenn Colléaux, 18, the migraines began round 14-15 years outdated, even when her first complications date again to childhood. “It instantly modified my each day life: once I was in disaster, I not went out, my social life stopped, I might not go to highschool”, she mentioned Thursday throughout a press convention organized by the affiliation La Voix des Migraineux. “In fact, we really feel totally different from the opposite youngsters, who didn’t actually perceive my struggling and for whom I had a easy headache”.

Difficult prognosis

Its prognosis and administration are much more sophisticated than for adults as a result of the signs are sometimes mistaken for digestive problems.

Childhood migraine is as disabling as grownup migraine: 50% have a couple of assault monthly and 78% have a reasonable to extreme assault depth. 40% have nausea or vomiting, 33% stomach ache.

“The vast majority of sufferers we see in session arrive round 10 years outdated, however the complications usually began earlier than,” mentioned Justine Have-Couturier, pediatrician in neurology on the Lille College Hospital. “We can not eradicate migraine, however we are able to scale back its frequency and depth”.

Stress and tiredness

Whereas many elements could cause a migraine, stress and fatigue are sometimes recognized by sufferers.

On the therapy aspect, paracetamol, anti-inflammatories or particular disaster therapies are usually prescribed (triptans, whose advertising and marketing authorization in France is from the age of 12).

Immune to medication, Maïwenn Colléaux has for her half “tried all the things”: self-hypnosis, hypnotherapy, equitherapy, EMDR… “These strategies soothe me on the time however don’t work in the long run. After I’m in disaster, I do not take something, I anticipate it to move”.