What to Do When Your Child with
Headache Is Leaving for College
Sarah Rahal, MD
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
T
he college environment is fraught with novelty for
incoming freshman. For most students, the challenge
lies in adapting to new academic and social pressures.
However, for those with migraine, the task lies beyond
this: navigating a host of new lifestyle factors that may trigger migraines. As any migraineur knows, change is often
a stimulus for headache, and for those new to campus the
changes in food, mood, sleep, and stress all play a role.
Migraine is thought of as a genetic tendency toward headache. Thus, it is likely many parents reading this article for
their teenager had once themselves faced the challenge of
leaving for college as a migraine sufferer. Knowing what
to expect and having a plan in place can alleviate concerns
and make for an easier transition.
Migraines occur above a certain threshold of triggers,
at the interplay of genes and environment. At the cornerstone of migraine management is knowing one’s triggers.
If your teenager does not yet possess a good handle on this,
now is a good time to start a headache diary – tracking
the circumstances around each migraine episode and looking for patterns. An identifiable trigger may not always be
present, but common trends may emerge, and behaviors
can be modified to address this. Environment