Treatment Approaches for Children
Migraine Treatment for Children. Most children with migraines may need only mild pain relievers and home remedies (such as ginger tea) to treat their headaches. The American Academy of Neurology's practice guidelines for children and adolescents recommend the following drug treatments:
- For children age 6 years and older, ibuprofen (Advil, generic) is recommended. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, generic) may also be effective. Acetaminophen works faster than ibuprofen, but the effects of ibuprofen last longer.
- For adolescents age 12 years and older, sumaptriptan (Imitrex) nasal spray is recommended.
Migraine Prevention for Children. Non-medication methods, including biofeedback and muscle relaxation techniques may be helpful. If these methods fail, then preventive drugs may be used, although evidence is weak on the effectiveness of standard migraine preventive drugs in children.
Withdrawing from Medications
If medication overuse causes rebound migraines to develop, the patient cannot recover without stopping the drugs. (If caffeine is the culprit, a person may need only to reduce coffee or tea drinking to a reasonable level, not necessarily stop drinking it altogether.) The patient can usually stop abruptly or gradually. The patient should expect the following:
- Most headache drugs can be stopped abruptly, but the patient should talk to their doctor first. Certain non-headache medications, such as anti-anxiety drugs or beta-blockers, require gradual withdrawal under medical supervision.
- If the patient chooses to taper off standard headache medications, withdrawal should be completed within 3 days.
- The patient may take other pain medicines during the first days. Examples of drugs that may be used include dihydroergotamine (with or without metoclopramide), NSAIDs (in mild cases), corticosteroids, or valproate.
- Patients must expect their headaches to get worse after they stop taking their medications, no matter which method they use. Most people feel better within 2 weeks, although headache symptoms can persist up to 16 weeks (and in rare cases even longer).
- If the symptoms do not respond to treatment and cause severe nausea and vomiting, the patient may need to be hospitalized.
Review Date: 11/04/2010
Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital.
Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M.,
Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
