Psychosocial and Demographic Characteristics of Children and Adolescents With Headache Presenting for Treatment in a Headache Infusion Center

Background Approximately 10% of pediatric patients have recurrent headaches, with migraine being the most common headache type. If untreated, migraine may progress to status migrainosus, a debilitating condition of prolonged duration, high pain severity, and significant disability. There is high variability in the treatment of status migrainosus including medications used and treatment setting, which may occur in the emergency room, as an inpatient admission, or, less often, in an outpatient infusion center. The paucity of research on the treatment of status migrainosus is a limitation to treatment effectiveness. Objective The objective of the study was twofold. First, we sought to examine the demographic characteristics of children and adolescents accessing our outpatient infusion center for prolonged headache. Second, we sought to determine whether any demographic or psychosocial differences exist between patients who access infusion therapy compared to patients who do not access infusion therapy for their headaches. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients between the ages of 6 and 19 years who were treated in our outpatient headache infusion center. A subset of these patients completed a behavioral health evaluation (treatment group) and they were compared to a control group of similar age (birthdate within 6 months) and gender to patients not seeking infusion treatment. Variables of interest included patient demographics, headache type and characteristics, and scores on the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), Functional Disability Inventory (FDI), Pediatric Pain Coping Inventory (PPCI), and the Behavior Assessment System for Children - Second Edition (BASC-2). Results A total of 284 patients were included in the study (n = 227 receiving infusion treatment and n = 57 controls). Patients were primarily female (224/286; 78.9%), Caucasian (254/286; 90.1%), and had a mean age of 15 years. Findings suggest a promising difference in the PPCI Distraction subscale, χ2 (1) = 3.7, P = .054, with a mean rank score of 61.90 for the treatment group and 50.21 for the control group. Additionally, a statistically significant difference was noted on the Social Support subscale, χ2 (1) = 10.6, P = .001, with a mean rank score of 65.92 for the treatment group and 46.26 for the control group. Results also indicated a statistically significant difference in disability scores, χ2 (1) = 10.0, P = .002, with a mean rank FDI score of 66.83 for the treatment group and 47.34 for the control group. Patients in the infusion group also reported lower quality of life on the PedsQL Total score (F[1, 109] = 5.0, P = .028; partial η2 = 0.044), and on the Physical (F[1, 109] = 7.9, P = .006; partial η2 = 0.069) and School (F[1, 109] = 4.6, P = .035; partial η2 = 0.041) subscales. No significant differences were found on the BASC-2. Parent reported data also revealed a significantly higher level of disability among patients seeking infusion treatment compared to the non-infusion group χ2 (1) = 11.7, P = .001. However, there were no significant differences on the PedsQL, PPCI, or BASC-2. Conclusions Our findings support the disabling nature of migraine among children and adolescents, with higher levels of disability and lower quality of life reported in the group of patients utilizing infusion treatment. Developing concrete treatment plans and goals combined with bio-behavioral therapy are necessary to reduce functional disability and increase quality of life among these patients. Awareness of this patient group's pain-related coping strategies may help health care providers tailor treatment recommendations and develop or refine cognitive-behavioral headache treatment techniques.