Data on the clinical characteristics of children and adolescents with status migrainosus are sparse and little is known about the prognosis of this population.

Patients from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Headache Center were included if they had a diagnosis of migraine and data available for a 1-3 month follow-up interval. Data extracted from the initial interval visit (visit A) included: age, sex, race, migraine diagnosis, status migrainosus (SM) history, chronic migraine, medication overuse headache (MOH), BMI, headache frequency, headache severity, disability, allodynia and lifestyle habits: caffeine intake, meal skipping, sleep duration, exercise frequency and fluid intake. Data extracted from the initial consultation visit included: months with headache at initial consultation visit, patient endorsing “feeling depressed” and anxiety symptoms. Headache frequency and visit type were also measured at the second visit (visit B) in the follow-up interval.

A total of 5,316 youth with migraine were included and 559 (10.5%) had a history of SM. In the multivariate logistic regression model, predictors significantly associated with SM were: older age, female, White, migraine with aura, MOH, higher headache severity, higher disability and months with headache at initial consultation. Patients with a history of SM were more likely to experience an increase in 4 or more headache days per month at follow-up: 15.2% as compared to 11.1% of those without SM, c² (1, n=5,316)=8.172, p=0.0043.