Balikesir University, Faculty of Medicine

Patients diagnosed presenting to the Balıkesir University Medical Faculty pediatric neurology clinic, Türkiye, between 01.09.2019 and 01.04.2023 and diagnosed with migraine were included retrospectively. The study was approved by the institutional clinical research ethics committee (decision no. 2023/68 dated 10.05.2023).

Patients diagnosed with migraine were included as the study group and healthy children presenting to the pediatric neurology clinic at the same times were enrolled as the control group. The demographic characteristics (age, sex, and body mass index) of the patient group and their clinical (attack durations and frequencies, symptoms during attacks, and treatments) and laboratory (hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), platelet, glucose, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), vitamin D, folate and ferritin levels) characteristics were recorded.

Patients and controls in whom Mg therapy was contraindicated (renal failure or nephrolithiasis), with non-migraine headaches, with substance/drug addiction (abuse), with psychiatric and/or chronic systemic diseases, and cases with histories of drug use (antidepressants, neuroleptics, tranquilizer group, antiepileptic medications (lithium and carbamazepine), using headache prophylaxis (beta blockers and calcium antagonists), and patients with deficient file data were excluded from the study.

Statistical analysis Descriptive characteristics (mean, number, and percentage) were determined for the study variables. Normality of distribution of numerical variables was checked. Whether continuous variables are normally distributed or not was evaluated by Kolmogorov Smirnov. Independent sample t test was used for normally distributed continuous variables. The Kruskal Wallis test was used to determine the difference between the means of three or more groups in non-normally distributed groups. Qualitative data were given as absolute reference and percentage distributions, and quantitative variables as mean and standard deviation (SD) in case of normal distribution. Categorical variables were compared using the chi-square test. Analyses were performed on Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 software. p values <0.05 were considered significant.