SEPARAXION ANXIETY IN PEDIATRIC MIGRAINE WITHOUT AURA: A PILOT STUDY

MARGHERITA SALERNO², AGATA MALTESE¹, GABRIELE TRIPI^3,4, PALMIRA ROMANO⁵, ANNABELLA DI FOLCO1, TERESA DI FILIPPO¹, LUCIA PARISI¹

¹Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, University of Palermo, Italy - ²Sciences for Mother and Child Health Promotion, University of Palermo, Italy - ³Department PROSAMI, University of Palermo, Italy - ⁴Childhood Psychiatric Service for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, CH Chinon, France - ⁵Clinic of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Department of Mental Health and Physical and Preventive Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania-Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy

Background: Separation anxiety (SA) can be defined as the fear reaction and protest manifested by children when the main caregivers move away from him/her or in front of unfamiliar person. SA near eight months may be considered as an important and normal phase of the correct and typical social neurodevelopment. Aims of the present pilot study is assessing the prevalence of separation anxiety in a population of patients with migraine without aura (MwA).

Materials and methods: 119 children (69 males) suffering from MwA (mean age 1.78 ± 7:59) were consecutively recruited. The control population consisted of 231 (114 males) healthy subjects similar for age (7.64 ± 1:34; p = 0.768) and gender (p=0.987)

The Screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (SCARED) test was used to assess the prevalence of separation anxiety among MwA children.

Results: Healthy individuals are on average less affected (mean 4.72 ± 0:32) of the Separation Anxiety Disorder respect of MwA children (mean 6.83 ± 0.97; p <0.001) (Figure 1).

Conclusion. MwA presents many psychiatric comorbidities and among ones separation anxiety may be considered in the clini- cal and therapeutic management of pediatric primary headache.