Efficacy of Levothyroxine in Migraine Headaches in Children with Subclinical Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism may be an exacerbating factor for primary headaches andmigraine is one of the most common primary headaches in childhood. Thepurpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of treatment of subclinicalhypothyroidism on children with migraine headache. In a quasi-experimental study, the severity and monthly frequency ofheadache of 25 migraineur children with subclinical hypothyroidism whowere referred to the pediatric neurology clinic of Shahid Sadoughi Universityof Medical Sciences,Yazd, Iran between January 2010 and February 2011and were treated with levothyroxine for two months were evaluated.Thirteen girls (52%) and 12 boys (48%) with the mean age of 10.2 ± 2.76years were evaluated.In children with hypothyroidism, the monthly frequency of headache (mean± SD: 17.64 ± 9.49 times vs. 1.2 ± 1.1 times) and the severity of headache(mean± SD: 6.24±1.8 scores vs. 1.33 ± 0.87 scores) were significantlydecreased by treatment.Based on the results of this study, treatment of subclinical hypothyroidismwas effective in reducing migraine headaches. Therefore, it is logical tocheck thyroid function tests in migraineur children.