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Children’s drawings of headache pain were accurate for diagnosing migraine

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Design
Blinded comparison of children’s drawings with clinical diagnosis.

Setting
A pediatric neurology clinic in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Patients
226 children who were 4 to 19 years of age (mean age 11.4 y, 54% girls) and had headache.

Description of test and diagnostic standard
Children were given a blank, unlined, white piece of paper (8.5 x 11 inches) and a number 2 pencil with a rubber. They were asked to draw a picture of themselves having a headache, showing where the pain was, what the pain felt like, and any other changes or symptoms that occurred before or during the headache. When children complained of having >1 type of headache, they drew a separate picture for each type (235 drawings). Two paediatric neurologists who were blinded to the children’s clinical history analysed the drawings. The diagnostic standard was a usual clinical evaluation including history, physical examination, formulation, and clinical diagnosis by a neurologist who did not view the drawings.

Main outcome measures
. . . [Full text of this article]

Alexander Chessman, MD

Medical University of South Carolina,
Charleston, South Carolina, USA