The Study on Car Sickness in Pediatric Migraineurs

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the symptoms of migraine and car sickness coexist or not. In addition, we tried to elucidate whether the car sickness can be a clinical indicator of diagnosing migraine in children. METHODS: A total of 166 children and adolescents who had newly diagnosed migraine and followed up for more than 2 years after the termination of treatment were involved in the study. The co-morbidity or co-existence of symptoms between two conditions in the clinical course was investigated. RESULTS: Sixty three of 124 who had car sickness as well as migraine recovered from migraine. Among these 63 patients, the car sickness disappeared in 44 (69.8%), decreased in 7 (11.1%) and persisted in 12 (19.0%). On the other hand, 23 of those 124 migraineurs continued to have migraine. In these patients, car sickness disappeared in 4 (17.4%), decreased in 5 (21.7%) and persisted in 14 (60.9%). The freedom or alleviation of car sickness is more common in children free from migraine than in children with persistent migraine (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that migraine is closely related to car sickness in children and the clinical course of migraine generally overlaps those of car sickness. We therefore believe that car sickness can be a clinical indicator in the diagnosis of migraine.