When her seven-year-old daughter started complaining of a headache and nausea, Hege Christin Samdahl quickly understood what was wrong.
The symptoms her daughter Ariel described were identical to those she herself knew all too well.
– I have a bad conscience for having given her the disease, says Samdahl.
All three of her children have been diagnosed with the same diagnosis that Samdahl himself has struggled with for several years: Migraine.
Intense pain and exhaustion have become a regular part of everyday life for the family of five, and they are not alone.
Several hospitals have recently seen a sharp increase in the number of children and young people who struggle with migraines or persistent headaches.
– It is worrying, says Gro Anita Gauslå, senior physician at Oslo University Hospital.
At Ullevål, they see a strong increase in headaches in children. Using a screen can be one of the causes of the problems. Photo: Ingvild Gjerdsjø / TV 2
– Was told that I was dramatic
Ariel Samdahl has turned 23 today. Like her mother, she has chronic migraine, which means that you have a headache more than 15 days a month.
– I can’t work or go to school. I really just try to get through the days with as little pain as possible, says Samdahl.
Although the mother quickly contacted the healthcare system, it has been difficult to get help.
– You are constantly told that you are dramatic, that you exaggerate and are just trying to escape school, says Ariel Samdahl.
– It is scary
For the mother, it has been awful to see the children go through the same pain that she herself lives with.
– I really have more than enough with myself and my own illness, but of course I have to stand up for the children. It is incredibly tiring to be a relative, says the mother of three.
Mother and daughter find it disturbing that so many children and young people today struggle with migraines and other headaches.
– I think it’s very scary. There are only more and more people who need help, but there is no help available, says Ariel Samdahl.
– Terribly loud
At Oslo University Hospital, they have noticed a clear increase in the number of inquiries from children and young people with headache complaints.
At Ullevål, they see a strong increase in headaches in children. Using a screen can be one of the causes of the problems. Photo: Ingvild Gjerdsjø
– Over a long period of time, we have had a very large influx, so unfortunately we are unable to accept absolutely everyone, says senior physician Gro Anita Gauslå.
National figures show that around five per cent of children of pre-school age have recurring headaches. This number increases with the child’s age, and among teenagers as many as one in four suffer from headaches.
– I think that number is terribly high, says Gauslå.
Disturbing trend in one age group
They have also seen a marked increase in the number of referrals at Haukeland and Akershus University Hospitals.
– We have the impression that more younger children are affected than before, and that many struggle with chronic headaches that affect everyday life, says Silja Torvik Griffith, senior physician at the pediatric neurology section at Haukeland.
At Ahus, they have seen a worrying trend among the older children.
At Ullevål, they see a strong increase in headaches in children. Using a screen can be one of the causes of the problems. Photo: Ingvild Gjerdsjø / TV 2
– There has been a sharp increase in the group between 12-18 years of age, and we think there are a lot of teenagers who struggle with tension headaches, says Anett Mykleby, section chief doctor at the children’s and youth clinic at Ahus.
The big scapegoat
In the children’s department at OUS, they accept everything from newborns to teenagers with all kinds of ailments. Recently, however, approximately one in four inquiries to the outpatient clinic have concerned headache problems.
It is a development that worries the superior.
– There are a lot of children out there who are in terrible pain, and who suffer every day. The disease can destroy both schooling and social life, says Gauslå.
She believes that there are several complex reasons why more children and young people get headache problems and migraines.
– There is still one thing I would like to highlight, and that is the lack of brain breaks. There are very few breaks for children and young people today, and the big scapegoat is the mobile phone, says Gauslå.
At Ullevål, they see a strong increase in headaches in children. Using a screen can be one of the causes of the problems. Photo: Ingvild Gjerdsjø / TV 2
In addition, Gauslå believes that factors such as sleep, diet, exercise and mental health have a lot to say. They have seen good results by making good surveys of the child’s life.
– What is so much fun is that by working as thoroughly and in detail as we do now, we see very good results, says Gauslå.
– Serious
State Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Care, Karl Kristian Bekeng (Ap), tells TV 2 that it is serious that the queues have become so long.
– It shows that we may have to adjust the offer better, he says.
They have therefore requested an investigation from the hospitals into how the offer for headache patients can be strengthened.
MUST WORK: State Secretary Karl Kristian Bekeng admits that the government has a job ahead of it to improve the situation for headache patients. Photo: Christian Roth Christensen / TV 2
– We are doing this precisely to get measures that may be able to reduce these waiting times.
– What specifically do you want to do for this group?
– Firstly, it is about making sure that you get more time with the GP, and that we are able to strengthen that arrangement so that the GPs have time to follow up these patients. In addition, we are looking at more specialized provision in the hospitals, says Bekeng.
