Osmophobia in juvenile primary headaches

This study was planned to investigate the prevalence of osmophobia in juvenile headache sufferers and to analyse the diagnostic utility of osmophobia in order to distinguish migraine without aura from episodic tension-type headache. We examined 305 consecutive patients presenting at our Paediatric H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Cephalalgia Vol. 28; no. 8; p. 825
Main Authors:	Corletto, E, Dal Zotto, L, Resos, A, Tripoli, E, Zanchin, G, Bulfoni, C, Battistella, P A
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 01-08-2008
Subjects:	Adolescent Child Comorbidity Diagnosis, Differential Female Humans Italy - epidemiology Male Migraine Disorders - diagnosis Migraine Disorders - epidemiology Odorants Olfaction Disorders - diagnosis Olfaction Disorders - epidemiology Pain Measurement - methods Pain Measurement - statistics & numerical data Phobic Disorders - diagnosis Phobic Disorders - epidemiology Prevalence Risk Assessment - methods Risk Factors Sensitivity and Specificity Surveys and Questionnaires Tension-Type Headache - diagnosis Tension-Type Headache - epidemiology
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Summary:	This study was planned to investigate the prevalence of osmophobia in juvenile headache sufferers and to analyse the diagnostic utility of osmophobia in order to distinguish migraine without aura from episodic tension-type headache. We examined 305 consecutive patients presenting at our Paediatric Headache Centre. A semistructured questionnaire was given to 275 selected patients affected by migraine or tension-type headache. The prevalence of osmophobia during attacks was 18.5%, mainly in migraine patients (25.1%) vs. those with tension-type headache (8.3%). Osmophobia showed more specificity than phonophobia or photophobia in the differential diagnosis between migraine and tension-type headache. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that osmophobia resulted in a symptom with poor sensitivity (27.1%) but high specificity (92%) that could become a supportive diagnostic criterion even in children for the differential diagnosis between migraine without aura and tension-type headache.
ISSN:	1468-2982
DOI:	10.1111/j.1468-2982.2008.01589.x