I was reading an article on the Reuters News Agency's website which appeared initially in the Pediatrics medical journal. It addressed the fact that frequent or severe headaches in childhood are associated with notable pain, mental health issues and functional limitations.

"Headaches are common among children and adolescents, particularly migraine and tension-type headaches," Dr. Tara W. Strine and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, write. "They contribute to missed school days, affect children's peer and family relationships, and significantly impact children's quality of life, often times into adulthood."

The researchers evaluated 9,264 children between the ages of 4 and 17 years who were part of the National Health Interview Survey. They based their study on responses to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

They found that about 6.7 percent of the children experienced frequent or severe headaches during the previous 12 months. These children tended to be older, white, non-Hispanic and living in or near poverty. I'm not sure how that might apply here in Saudi Arabia, or back home in Miami, but that's a pretty significant amount of kids.

Compared with children without headaches, children with headaches were:

· 3.5 times more likely to have a high level of emotional symptoms

· 2.5 times more likely to have conduct problems

· 2.6 times more likely to have symptoms of hyperactivity or inattention

· 1.7 times more likely to have peer problems.

High levels of impairments were 2.7 times more frequent in children with headaches, which suggests potential mental health issues. These children were also 2.9 times more likely than children without headaches to be upset or distressed by their difficulties and to have these difficulties interfere with their home life, friendships, classroom learning, and leisure activities, Dr. Strine's team notes.

Overall, 82.2 percent of children with headaches and 77.6 percent of those without had visited a general physician in the previous 12 months. Children with headaches were also significantly more likely to have visited a mental health professional (17.9 percent versus 5.7 percent) or a general physician (9.9 percent versus 3.9 percent) in the previous year because of emotional or behavioral problems.

The authors note that 5.6 percent of the children with headaches and 1.9 percent of those without headaches were currently receiving special education services for emotional or behavioral problems.

Now, I personally have been having migraines since I was in Kindergarten. I think that sometimes people look for excuses to say that a kid has a disorder or that a kid has an excuse not to excel in their studies. It seems these types of people are trying to find, or create, at least one disorder in everybody around them. In the end, they find a disorder in themselves and that's the end of their parade. I don't think one should hastily diagnose a child with a disorder, but parents and teachers should be aware of those children that might suffer from migraines or tension-headaches. I predict, and Allah knows best of the future, that soon we will find adult-related heart diseases due to stress, in our future elementary-schoolers. Perhaps we might find middle-schoolers having panic attacks. Perhaps high-schoolers will have heart-attacks? May Allah help us all, and our children, aameen.

"Given the bidirectional relationship between mental health and headaches, both general doctors and mental health professionals should play an integral role in the care of these children," the authors conclude.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, May 2006