Discomfort in the lower limbs in children and adolescents what clinicians call growing pains and is typically linked to rapid growth may signify the existence or risk of migraines, according to new research.

These findings were published in the journal Headache The Journal of Head and Face Pain.

The study comprised 100 children and adolescents born to migraine-prone mothers who were examined at a headache clinic, with half of the children having growing pains.

In families of children with growing pains, there is an increased prevalence of other pain syndromes, especially migraine among parents.

On the other hand, children with migraine have a higher prevalence of growing pains, suggesting a common pathogenesis; therefore, we hypothesised that growing pains in children are a precursor or comorbidity with migraine, the author wrote.

78 patients were included in the study after a 5-year follow-up period, 42 of them were from the growing pains group and 36 from the other control group.

76 per cent of subjects who experienced growing pains and 22 per cent of controls reported headaches. Growing pains emerged in 39 per cent of participants who had previously been asymptomatic and remained in 14 per cent of study participants who had them at the beginning of the trial.

“Pain in the lower limbs of children and adolescents may reflect a precursor or comorbidity with migraine,” the authors concluded.