Institute of Children's Psychiatry, University of Rome, Italy.
Forty-eight elementary and junior high school students presenting the association of recurring headache and sleep disorders were selected for this study on the basis of a questionnaire filled out by the entire school population. The selected students had normal intellectual capacity but often showed inadequate progress in school, attentive-mnemonic deficiencies, and psychopathological elements of a depressive nature. The clinical characteristics predicted that this group would be responsive to treatment with L-5-hydroxytryptophan. The results of a double-blind, cross-over trial with placebo confirmed these expectations for headache and some sleep disorders, in particular frequent awakenings and some parasomnias.