Migraine Can Start in Childhood
It is common for migraine to start in childhood. In these patients, tension type headache is also added to the picture in adult ages. Migraine and tension type headache can exist simultaneously but tension type is more continuous. Occasionally, migraine attacks may accompany them.
Tension Type Headache and Migraine Story
Female patient, a 24-year-old graduate student, was having migraine attacks since childhood years. But she claimed that they became more serious during high-school and college years. When she came to me, migraine was still there and also a continuous headache was added to the picture.
“I have headaches since I was a little girl. Smells, hair accessories, hunger and sleep deprivation trigger it. Recently, hunger became more effective. I can’t even bear to delay my meals a little bit. My headache shows itself immediately. For example, yesterday I felt that I was hungry at 13.10 but couldn’t get a chance to eat until 13.30. That caused my head to hurt all day long.
Also, there is another recent development for the last 4 or 5 months. As soon as my head touches the pillow the pain comes. That’s why I want to stand up all the time. In the last couple months I began waking up with a pain every morning. These are very different than the ones I had in high school. Pain killers do not work and the pain, starting on both temples, spreads to my whole head. Actually I was having headaches even before primary school but it became more often recently. It affects my daily life a lot.”