Neuropsychological Profile of Hemiplegic Migraines: A Pediatric Case Study
Neuropsychological Profile of Hemiplegic Migraines: A Pediatric Case Study

Summary/Abstract: The clinical interview is an important part of a pediatric neuropsychological evaluation. Investigating the history of symptoms, the family, and genetic factors can often clarify etiological information. This manuscript will review a case of a 12year old girl (HA) who has a family history of migraine headaches, but had previously been diagnosed and treated as a child with multiple mild grade 1 concussions. These suspected concussions were purportedly resulting in infrequent, but intermittent hemiplegic migraines. Specifically, HA suffered Hemiplegic Migraines which involved right dominant hand hemiplegia and significantly altered level of consciousness for approximately 12-24hours, resulting in a full return to physical and cognitive functioning post recovery. Medical records revealed practitioners did not explore family history or the sequence of events leading up to the migraines. There were even questions in the medical reports suggesting the hemiplegia may have reflected a conversion disorder. However, a thorough clinical interview including family history and neuropsychological, this case appears to show that HA has hemiplegia migraines along with neurocognitive impairments very consistent with previously published cases. Moreover her pattern of performance showed significant score variability and impairments on multiple largely left hemisphere and executive functioning tasks. Her specific cognitive impairments included a variety of left hemisphere cognitive skills (verbal comprehension, reading, bilateral executive deficits) as appears to suggest multifocal left hemisphere cerebral dysfunction.

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