efficacy of levothyroxine in migraine headaches in children with subclinical hypothyroidism

how to cite this article: mirouliaie m, fallah r, partovee m, ordooei m. efficacy of levothyroxine in migraine headaches in children with subclinical hypothyroidism. iran j child neurol autumn 2012;6(4):23-26.   abstract objective hypothyroidism may be an exacerbating factor for  primary headaches and migraine is one of the most common primary headaches in childhood. thepurpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism on children with migraine headache. materials & methods in a quasi-experimental study, the severity and monthly frequency of headache of 25 migraineur  children with subclinical hypothyroidism who were referred to the pediatric neurology clinic of shahid sadoughi university of medical sciences, yazd, iran between january 2010 and february 2011and were treated with levothyroxine for two months were evaluated. results thirteen girls (52%) and 12 boys (48%) with the mean age of 10.2 ± 2.76years were evaluated.in children with hypothyroidism, the monthly frequency of headache (mean± sd: 17.64 ± 9.49 times vs. 1.2 ± 1.1 times) and the severity of headache(mean± sd: 6.24±1.8 scores vs. 1.33 ± 0.87 scores) were significantly decreased by treatment. conclusion based on the results of this study, treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism was effective in reducing migraine headaches. therefore, it is logical to check thyroid function tests in migraineur  children.  references: jan mm. updated overview of pediatric headache and migraine. saudi med j. 2007 sep;28(9):1324-9. hershey ad. headaches. in: kliegman rm, stanton bf, schor nf, st. geme jw, behrman re. nelson textbook of pediatrics. 19 th ed. philadelphia: saunders; 2011. p. 2039-42. hershey ad. current approaches to the diagnosis and management of paediatric migraine. lancet neurol. 2010 feb;9(2):190-204. bigal me, gladstone j. the metabolic headaches. curr pain headache rep. 2008 aug;12(4):292-5. tepper de, tepper sj, sheftell fd, bigal me. headache attributed to hypothyroidism. curr pain headache rep. 2007 aug;11(4):304-9. toprak d, demirkukan k, ellidokuz h. is it important to test thyroid function tests in migraineurs? tjfmpc. 2007;4:47-51. hagen k, bjøro t, zwart ja, vatten l, stovner lj, bovim g. low headache prevalence amongst women with high tsh values. eur j neurol. 2001 nov;8(6):693-9. oleson j. the international classification of headache disorders: 2nd edition. headache classification subcommittee of the international headache society. cephalalgia 2004; 24 (suppl) : 9-160. lafranchi s. disorders of the thyroid gland. in: kliegman rm, stanton bf, schor nf, st. geme jw, behrman re. nelson textbook of pediatrics. 19th ed. philadelphia: saunders; 2011. p. 1894-908. mavromichalis i, anagnostopoulos d, metaxas n, papanastassiou e. prevalence of migraine in schoolchildren and some clinical comparisons between migraine with and without aura. headache. 1999 nov-dec;39(10):728-36. zwart ja, dyb g, holmen tl, stovner lj, sand t. the prevalence of migraine and tension-type headaches among adolescents in norway. the nord-trøndelag health study (head-hunt-youth), a large population-based epidemiological study. cephalalgia. 2004 may;24(5):373-9. bigal me, lipton rb, winner p, reed ml, diamond s, stewart wf. migraine in adolescents: association with socioeconomic status and family history. neurology. 2007 jul;69(1):16-25. singh sk. prevalence of migraine in hypothyroidism. j assoc physicians india. 2002 nov;50:1455-6. moreau t, manceau e, giroud-baleydier f, dumas r, giroud m. headache in hypothyroidism. prevalence and outcome under thyroid hormone therapy. cephalalgia.1998 dec;18(10):687-9. iwasaki y, kinoshita m, ikeda k, takamiya k, shiojima t. thyroid function in patients with chronic headache. int j neurosci. 1991 apr;57(3-4):263-7. abend ns, younkin d. medical causes of headache in children. curr pain headache rep. 2007 oct;11(5):401-7. abend ns, younkin d, lewis dw. secondary headaches in children and adolescents. semin pediatr neurol. 2010 jun;17(2):123-33.