Chronic headaches in children can be as disabling as other serious illnesses.

One child in 10 suffers from chronic headaches that stunt their emotional lives and hurt school performance as much as cancer and other illnesses. Dr. Michael Pranzatelli, professor of pediatrics and neurology at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield says many things cause headaches.

SOUND BITE: "There are lifestyle problems - somebody who is drinking too much caffeine, living too frenetic a lifestyle, somebody who is not getting enough sleep - has a lot of stress. On the other end of the spectrum, you have serious causes like ah brain tumors, vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the blood vessels, and somewhere in the middle of all these causes, you have migraine."

Dr. Pranzatelli says, when treating patients, he checks to see if some simple lifestyle corrections can be made - possibly reducing or eliminating caffeine. He then looks at sleep habits. Not getting the proper amount of sleep can cause migraine headaches. He recommends a regular exercise program and removing the radio and television from a child's room to improve sleep patterns. Dr. Pranzatelli says other causes of headaches include sleep apnea and depression. He explains that some headaches require medication.

SOUND BITE: "In headaches that were more than at at least twice a week, you're probably going to need to be on a medicine that they take every day for at least six months to break the cycle. If the headaches are only a couple times a month, then you might be able to take something just before you get the headaches. In children, over the counter measures are what we would do in those ah infrequent cases. Pediatric Motrin or Tynelol would be fine, but if they need to be on the chronic daily medicine, then we're getting into a whole family of different kinds of medicines . . ."

Children who have severe and re-occurring headaches should see their primary care physician, who may refer them to a headache specialist.