How should I manage children with chronic or frequent tension-type headache?
Listening to and addressing the child’s or parent’s concerns • Listening to and addressing the child’s or parent’s concerns about the cause of the headache is widely emphasized by experts based on clinical experience [Peatfield and Edmeads, 2006; BASH, 2007]. Although serious causes for headache are rare, they are a common concern to people with headache and, unless adequately dealt with, may cause distress and impair effective treatment of the condition. Drug treatment for tension-type headache • Ibuprofen is recommended for children with tension-type headache, based on: • Good evidence extrapolated from a meta-analysis that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are effective for relieving tension-type headache in adults, and this is likely to be a class effect. • Ibuprofen is considered to have a lower risk of gastrointestinal adverse effects than other NSAIDs [García Rodríguez and Hernández-Díaz, 2001; BNF 57, 2009], and is available in a suspension. Diclofenac and naproxen
