A paper published in the latest issue of the medical journal Cephalagia argues that children who suffer from chronic migraines are more likely to develop psychological side-effects, including depression, anxiety, social and attention issues, as well as behavioral difficulties.
The team behind the study says that the intensity of the migraines correlates directly to the intensity of the symptoms. The frequency of headaches also plays an important role, PsychCentral reports.
“As previously reported by others, we found that migraine was associated with social problems. The ‘social’ domain identifies difficulties in social engagement as well as infantilized behavior for the age and this may be associated with important impact on the personal and social life,” the team says.
The work was led by expert Marco Arruda, MD, who is the director of the Glia Institute in São Paulo, Brazil.