Osmophobia and primary headaches in children and adolescents

Abstract

Headache is one of the most frequent complaints in children and adolescents and there are difficulties to specify the diagnostic in the pediatric population, mainly due to the fact of biological and psychic immaturity. There is an important relationship between odors and primary headaches. Osmophobia can occur during headaches and odors can trigger headache attacks. The prevalence of osmophobia in pediatric patients with migraine varies from 25% to 35%, being a symptom of low sensitivity, but high specificity in the differential diagnosis between migraine and tension-type headache. Odor intolerance, when present, does not appear to be difficult to report and characterized by adults or children.