Childhood headaches influence adult health

Relation between headache in childhood and physical and psychiatric symptoms in adulthood: national birth cohort study

Children who experience frequent headaches are at an increased risk of recurring headache and other physical and psychiatric symptoms in adulthood, finds a study in this week's BMJ. These findings may have implications for the health of today's children and their future wellbeing.

Data from over 11,000 people, who were surveyed at ages 7, 11, 16, 23 and 33 as part of a national child development study, were used to investigate the relation between headache in childhood and outcomes in adulthood. The research team found that children with frequent headache were more likely to experience psychosocial adversity and to grow up with an excess of both headache and other physical and psychiatric symptoms. All three outcomes were more common in women and those from a manual social class.

These findings confirm that children with headache do not simply "grow out" of their physical complaint and may also "grow into" others, say the authors. Furthermore, evidence shows that the prevalence of headache in childhood is increasing steadily in the developed world, and if this is so there may well be a corresponding increase in physical and psychiatric symptoms as today's children become adults.

Contact:

Paul Fearon, Clinical Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry and Guy's, King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine, London, UK Email: p.fearon@iop.kcl.ac.uk