PainRelief.com Interview with:
Dr Ayşe Nur Özdag Acarli
Ermenek State Hospital, Karaman, Turkey

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study? 

Response: Headache is the most common neurological problem in children and adolescents. Various factors can contribute to headache such as school, sleep, physical activity, electronic devices, mental health problems and socioeconomic conditions.

For young people, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a striking change on every aspect of life such as school closure, online education from home, fewer academic pressures, more self care at home. Early studies, examined shorter-term effects of the pandemic, reported a reduction on the prevalence of headache and chronic pain in adolescents during COVID-19, which was attributed to less school-related stress. However, in my personal clinical experience, young patients suffered more frequent and severe headaches during the pandemic, especially after the first year of the pandemic. However, literature has been lacking in the long term effects of the pandemic on headache in adolescents.