No abstract

Adolescents referred to an academic center for evaluation of unexplained chronic fatigue had greater rates of school absenteeism than adolescents with migraine or healthy controls. Those meeting CDC-CFS criteria had higher anxiety scores than controls and higher depression and somatization scores than migraineurs or controls. Parents of adolescents with I-CFS were less likely to endorse psychological factors as possibly contributing to their symptoms than parents of adolescents with CDC-CFS or migraine.

In a referred population, students who missed more school due to headache had higher depression scores and lower academic performance than students who missed less school. A directional relationship, however, cannot be implied from these results. Future studies should investigate the complex relationship between recurrent adolescent headache, potential risk or protective factors, and school absenteeism.