Mindfulness meditation for chronic migraine in pediatric population: a pilot study

Excerpt

Chronic migraine (CM) is a highly disabling condition characterized by at least 15 days with headache per month and is often associated with overuse of symptomatic drugs and it impairs patients’ emotional, social, and work/school functioning. Among adults, CM prevalence is around 1–4%, and among adolescents, it is around 2%. CM is characterized by changes in the structures involved in pain-related circuits with increased sensitivity to painful (hyperalgesia) and to non-painful stimuli (allodynia). Specific biomarkers in pediatric patients with migraine have been evaluated. The study showed a reduction in IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α levels, and in clinical indexes related to headache: frequency, intensity, duration, and disability in patients treated with pharmacological prophylaxis [1]. However, no studies that have shown any effect on biological markers induced by non-pharmacological approaches. There are many pharmacological prophylactic therapies, but these are effective in 30–50% of cases: for this reason, the effectiveness of non-pharmacological therapies is a matter of research interest. This is of particular importance in pediatric populations, where the use of pharmacological prophylaxis should not be encouraged. …