Background: Migraine tops among the recurrent primary headaches in children and adolescents. Characteristics of migraine in children and adolescents differ significantly from adults. Migraine attacks are precipitated by triggers like dietary, environmental, emotional and behavioral stimuli. Characterization of clinical profile and triggers of migraine will help greatly in managing this group of migraine sufferers. Aim of the study: To study the clinical profile of migraine in children and adolescents and To find out and analyze the common triggers of migraine in them Materials and methods Study sample: Thirty children between 5 to 12 years and seventy adolescents between 13 to 18 years study place: Institute of Neurology, Govt Rajiv Gandhi General hospital and Institute of Child Health. A detailed history is taken from all patients regarding the characteristics of their migraine attacks and a thorough clinical examination was done.A questionnaire containing the common triggers of migraine were provided to them/ their parents in case of children and their responses were recorded. Results and analysis: There were 30 children and 70 adolescents in the study group. Of the total 100 children, 59 were female and 41 were male. Migraine without aura is the commonest type observed in this study. Abdominal migraine was seen in 2 and cyclical vomiting was seen in only 1 patient. Maternal history was more with 83% and paternal was 16%. Most children in the study group had 4 to 8 attacks per month, which falls under the category of mild disability in the migraine disability scales. Almost half of patients had migraine onset below 12 years of age. Migraine with aura forms only a small portion of patients. 9 adolescent girls had menstruation as their trigger factor. Aura is not seen in pediatric patients of this study group. Majority of children had more than one trigger. Most common triggers observed in this study are too much physical activity, changes in routine, skipping meals, sleep disturbances, noisy surroundings and bright lighting conditions. Modern era triggers like mobile games and TV watching play a role in both children and adolescents. Most common dietary triggers in children was found to be chocolate and ice creams. Conclusion: Migraine in children and adolescents differs from adults in several ways. Childhood periodic syndromes like abdominal migraine, cyclical vomiting syndrome are frequent in this population. Under diagnosis of migraine in children may be due to the poor expressibility of headache characteristics by them. Common migraine triggers in our population are noisy environment, excessive physical activity, skipping meals, sleep disturbance and change in the daily routine. Novel triggers like mobile games, video games are important precipitants of migraine attacks in children.

Keywords: Migraine; Aura; Disability; Triggers