A common complaint among toddlers is headache. Pediatricians categorize headaches as being of two kinds: migraine and
Question:
A common complaint among toddlers is headache. Pediatricians categorize headaches as being of two kinds: migraine and non-migraine. Correct diagnosis is important because the treatments are different for the two types of headache. Diagnosis of headaches is difficult with toddlers because a child is often unable to verbally express the symptoms. As a result, an intervention is proposed in which children's drawing are used to analyze subjective feeling. Does this intervention work?
In a recent study, children at a pediatric clinic who complained of headaches were given a piece of blank paper and pencil, and asked:
Please draw a picture of yourself having a headache. Where is your pain? What does your pain feel like? Are there any other changes that come before or during your headache that you can show me in a picture?
One group of physicians categorized the children's drawings as indicating symptoms of migraine, and a different group of pediatricians provided the usual clinical diagnosis of the children's headaches as a gold standard. Their hope is that they can use these drawings as a diagnostic tool when working with toddlers. The results of the observations are in the table below: