Nearly Four Out of Ten Youths Migraine-Free in 10 Years

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- More than one-third of youths with migraine headaches are symptom-free 10 years later, but nearly 42 percent continue to have persistent migraines, researchers report in the Oct. 24 issue of Neurology.

Roberto Monastero, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Palermo in Italy, and colleagues studied 55 headache-prone youths aged 11 to 14 who had been examined for a population study in 1989.

The researchers found that 20 percent of the youths who had migraine headaches at baseline went on to experience tension headaches a decade later, 38.2 percent were symptom-free, and 41.8 percent continued to have persistent migraines. After a decade, only migraine without aura lingered; non-classifiable headache and migrainous disorder did not.

Patients with a family history of headache were seven times as likely to experience 10-year migraine persistence as those without a family history of migraine. When researchers assessed patients who had migraine only with or without aura, they found a lingering 10-year migraine persistence risk (odds ratio 5.0).

"Migraine headaches in adolescents have a favorable long-term prognosis," the authors write. "Familial disposition for migraine predicted a poorer outcome, especially in subjects with migraine without aura."

Abstract
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