Migraine

I have an 8 year old diagnosed with ADD. Since he was an infant he has had sporadic unpredictable behaviour which often leads to increasing path of irritability, obsession, aggitation, opposition, and finally rages. He says it is like a tiger that escapes and moves from growling to scratching to attacking; like he looses more and more control. Once the process has started it is very difficult to stem. These sessions can go on for hours and generally end with a bad headache, thinking he has a fever, shaky, arms and legs hurt, sore eyes, quite significant light and sound sensitivity, and severe nausea. At that point he becomes completely calm and VERY tired. He crawls under his blankets, refusing any light or sound. We thought this was the result of the hours long tantrum.

I am now wondering if we have it backwards.

I have frequent, longlasting migraines myself = more days than not some years. According to friends and family, I get irritable and confused and one of my initial warning (prodrome) symptoms is a strong desire to crawl into the fetal position and cry for hours. This can be accommpanied by panic attacks and/or mental confusion, occurring hours or even days before the acutal aura and headache - which can last hours or days as well.

Has anyone come across this pattern in children before; escalating behaviour problems out of left field and disappearing with the arrival of typical aura signs and a blistering headache - usually on the the same side? Or am I grasping at straws?

Hello dawnbat and welcome to you and your son! I'm so glad you found this site! When you have a moment, please check out the Start Here Folder for important information and guidelines about the forum. Also, I think you'll find this article beneficial:

Learning About Migraines – Where to Start

I don't have any personal experience with children who have ADD/ADHD and also Migraines, but there is a member here who does, hopefully she'll be by soon to offer her advice. In the meantime, I'm going to get you started with a few articles that I think will help:

Anatomy of a Migraine

Types of Headaches and Migraines

Something else to keep in mind is what could be triggering these possible Migraines? Being able to identify your sons triggers can be very useful. For instance, my triggers are lack of sleep, not eating, changes in the weather and some strong smells. A great tool to help you track potential triggers is a Headache and Migraine Diary. That link will get you to a free, downloadable diary:

Common Migraine Triggers

Stackable Triggers

Again, welcome to the forum family! I will keep you and your son in my thoughts while you are trying to figure out what is going on with him. Please keep us updated on how he is doing, okay?

quote:

I have an 8 year old diagnosed with ADD.

Hi Dawn.

My son, 11, has migraines and ADHD.

I think your instincts are right about your son's behavior before his migraine that it's a prodome.

Laura is right about keeping a food diary to identify triggers. I haven't found too many triggers for my son yet - massive amounts of chocolate after holidays and bananas.

Is your son on any ADD meds? What about migraine preventives, or medicine to abort the migraine once you see this "prodrome" starting?

There aren't many pediatric headaches specialists, but a host can get you a list.

My son seems to get quiet before a migraine; unfortnately, I don't always know if it's a migraine coming on or if he's just tired, busy with something, thinking, etc. He seems to have no obvious prodrome.

This is all new to me - he's had migraines about four years but at first I just thought he was the stomache virus king. I've looked all over the internet and it's hard to find a connection between migraines and ADD/ADHD.

I hope my information has helped. Good luck.

First off, hello and welcome!

It's certainly possible that the behavior issues are a lead-up to migraine. It's also possible that a person can have ADD/ADHD and migraine, and that the two don't play well together, antagonizing each other. We've got a boy in one of our classes at school like that right now. He's quite ADHD, and also has seizure disorder and migraine. He can be a handful on a good day. Add the seizures or a migraine, and he's really a whirling dervish of the highest order.

I think the best thing would be to find a true migraine specialist and get a firm diagnosis of whether these episodes are ADD/ADHD or migraine related, or if it might be a combination of both. I don't think you're barking up the wrong tree at all. I think you're posing very legitimate "what ifs".

Here's the link to our specialists directory, with the caveat that there really are few pediatric specialists...

Patient-recommended Headache and Migraine Specialists

Hi Dawnbat

My son who is 6 and has a history of frequent severe migraine becomes very aggressive and totally irrational at times when he is symptomatic.

He has difficulty with attention and can be a real handful although he has never been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD as his difficulties are clearly episodic.

Recently he has had some huge periods of improvement and has reverted to the lovable child we all know. Part of the improvement has been giving him strong pain relief when the behavioural changes start. I personally think some of the agitation is pain related.

My son also experiences lots of nausea and not being able to eat regular meals really brings out the Dr Jekell in him. He craves sugar during his episodes and I think the highs and lows in his blood sugar levels are also a big factor in his behaviour.

He is on a migraine preventative and is improving at the moment. I have often wondered about a connection between migraine and ADD/ADHD having seen the similarities to my sons behaviour. Luckily for us this is episodic and he reverts to his normal happy self when he is well.

Good luck with it all. Daisy