Abstract
IHS Child and Adolescent Standing Committee
Understanding the impact and nature of headache disorders in children and adolescents is complicated by the lack of research and clear treatments for this age group, while also having to deal with the complexities of family and social dynamics. The Child and Adolescent Standing Committee’s goal is to reduce these barriers and improve the lives of these children and adolescents and their overall outcome. To accomplish this goal, we provide education to improve the awareness of headache disorders in children and adolescents, encourage the exchange of ideas amongst specialists that care for this group of patients, examine the similarities and differences in this age group with the better-characterized disorders in adults, and support research to further answer these questions.
The committee is very active in education, presenting multiple courses in IHS-sponsored Scientific and Education meetings including the recent International Headache Congress and last month at the second Global Migraine & Pain Summit, fifth Mena Meeting and third Turkish American Meeting of Headache and Pain Management. Committee members have also been involved in recording educational presentations for the IHC website to further expand these learning opportunities in the IHS website Learning Center. All these recent education endeavors have been virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the benefit that a much larger audience can have the experience. These, as well as committee meetings, also provide the opportunity for colleagues to engage and interact with each other, fueling the discussions and dialogue of how to better help these children and adolescents.
As many gaps remain in the recognition, understanding, diagnosis, management and outcomes of children and adolescents with headache disorders, the committee is pursuing the development of a seed grant mechanism to provide the resources to develop new research projects to address these gaps. The intent of these seed projects is to provide the pilot foundation for much larger extramural funding and expand the number of researchers and opportunities for discovery of headache disorders in children and adolescents. For more information on this opportunity please see the IHS website.
As we have improved education and research, we also need to provide the resources to advocate for our patients. The opportunity for advocacy and collaboration with groups that advocate for adults with headaches disorders has a great potential to also intervene for children and adolescents to societal barriers and improved recognition.