LAHORE – Hamza looks calm while he sits in his room and tries hard to make his way through the physics book. Its half past ten and he is still to have his dinner. His exams are approaching and his eating and sleeping habits have lost track. As he makes sure that he ends the chapter before midnight, after which he will have his meal and then will go to bed late after midnight, he feels a buzz in half his head, the buzz magnifies and turns into a twinge, the twinge amplifies to a much louder pang and with his eyes half wet, with his pang-less part of his head oozing with study stress, he just gives up, lays flat on his stomach, holding his head, and cries, “I cant take it any more.”
He sobs, “This migraine is getting on my nerves.” Changes in sleep patterns, missed meals and physical or emotional stress are some of the factors that trigger migraine, which is a half-head-ache and can also occur with nausea, vomiting or sensitivity to light. The increasing ratio of migraine problem among the public, especially the children and teenagers has caused a deep concern for the parents. Such was Hamza’s case.
He says he can not study and is not able to concentrate whenever the migraine attacks. His mother says his son has been suffering with the disease for last few years but the disease was diagnosed recently. She said that her relative, who too was a migraine patient, suggested her to visit a local Hakeem instead of an allopathic doctor. She said by avoiding meat, his son was getting better.
MORE COMMON IN CHILDREN: According to a research at Cincinnati (City of Ohio) Children’s Hospital Medical Center, migraines are more common in children and teens than many people realize, said Scott Powers, a clinical psychologist and co-director of the Headache Center at Cincinnati Children’s.
According to the Migraine Research Foundation, about 10 percent of school-age children suffer from migraine. Research adds that half of all migraine sufferers have their first attack before the age of 12, whereas before puberty, boys suffer from migraine more often than girls and as adolescence approaches, the incidence increases more rapidly in girls than in boys. Students claim that instant attack of migraine cause serious implications as they have to avoid migraine triggers in order to cope with the potential attack.
SYMPTOMS DIFFER WITH AGE: As the medical scientists still unable to discover a treatment for the disease, patients are using different measures to cope with the problem. Researchers also revealed that the symptoms of migraine among children and teenagers may be different from typical symptoms found in the adults therefore it’s difficult to diagnose the disease among the children and teenagers.
Another patient of the disease Mrs Qureshi said that she has been suffering with the disease for last twenty years but it was more intense during her teenage. She said that there is no specific treatment for the problem, the drugs used to give just temporary relief to the pain.
MORE OF PREVENTION THAN CURE: Doctors believe that there is a paradigm shift in the treatment of migraine as early migraine medications were focused on blood vessels whereas current theory of the source of migraine pain reflects the advances in technology that help us understand how the brain works. Researchers now believe that migraine is a disorder involving nerve pathways and brain chemicals. Researchers also revealed that over 100 drugs used to prevent or treat migraine symptoms, whereas none have been approved for use in children.
The mother of a migraine suffering child said that she fears using medicine to treat the migraine, as it can have side effects. “We try to fulfill the needs of our child and stop him to use the things which may trigger the pain,” she added.
