Female Speaker: Clare Moloney is a happy, active 16 year old. She volunteers as a model for a charity fashion shows and is a full-time high school honor student. She's always on the go, but there is one thing that can slow her down a migraine headache.
Clare Moloney: When I get a headache, there's usually a lot of pounding behind one eye or sometimes when it's really bad behind both eyes.
Dr. Adel Helmy: Migraine is characterized by certain quality of pulsating or throbbing and migraine is usually associated with vomiting or nausea and some sensitivity to light or to loud sounds.
Female Speaker: When severe, migraines can be quite debilitating and seriously affect the sufferer's quality of life.
Clare Moloney: Headaches affect my life in many ways, doing my homework sometimes I can't get through it, some nights I have to stay home from school, during dance all I want to do is go home.
Female Speaker: Clare takes over-the-counter medication at the first sign of the migraine and sometimes that's enough to knock the headache out and give her immediate relief. There are many different over-the-counter medicines that can temporarily help with the pain, but when the headaches are frequent and severe, experts have stronger, prescription medicines they can recommend for young migraine sufferers. They're called prophylactic medications and they work but they are not for everybody.
Dr. Adel Helmy: If the headache is frequent, if the headache is controlling the child's life and the home situation and the school situation, this is the time to discuss prophylactic medication.
Female Speaker: Clare has had headaches since she was 11 years old but when they started to interfere with her quality of life, her parents got a referral from her pediatrician to see Dr. Helmy, pediatric neurologist. Dr. Helmy gave Clare a thorough neurologic examination and ordered a CT scan to make sure there were no other physical reasons for her headaches.
Dr. Adel Helmy: Your CAT scan, its normal.
Female Speaker: He also had her keep a food diary of everything she ate, to check for anything that might be triggering the migraines. They discovered that chocolate was part of the problem. It's a common migraine trigger. Others include food additives like nitrates in lunch meats, or MSG in Chinese food. Also, the yellow color in orange juice and the amino acids in ripe bananas can trigger migraines. Hormones can be a trigger. Many adolescent girls have migraines around the time of their menstrual periods. But remember, not all headaches are migraines, some may be a sign of something more serious.
Dr. Adel Helmy: A headache that is associated with fever is a warning sign. A headache that is associated with a head trauma is a warning sign. A headache that is associated with severe vomiting is a warning sign.
Female Speaker: While migraines are not as common in very young children, Dr. Helmy has seen patients in his office as young as four suffering with migraines. Sometimes it's difficult for a child that young to define the pain, so they have to get creative.
Dr. Adel Helmy: We ask them to draw the kind of headache that they have, and surprisingly, they draw it in a certain way that is really characteristic of a migraine, if it is a migraine. Like they draw a person with a hammer and it's pounding on their head.
Female Speaker: Fortunately with the help of Dr. Helmy and the food diary, Clare is now bringing her headaches under control. If they become more frequent, she may consider prophylactic medicines, but she's hoping they'll eventually go away on their own.
Clare Moloney: People have told me that if you have headaches when you're younger that you'll grow out of them so I'm hoping that I'll grow out of them by the time early twenties.
Female Speaker: Dr. Helmy says anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of children who suffer with migraine headaches never complain of headaches once they become adults.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services