LONDON Children who suffer from persistent headaches may not just "grow out" of them and could develop other physical and psychiatric problems as they grow older, Reuters reported on Friday.

Headaches are a common complaint among children, but researchers at Guy's, King's and St. Thomas's School of Medicine in London said frequent headaches could be a sign of underlying psychosocial problems such as unhappiness, depression or illness within the family.

Childhood headaches can also lead to an increased risk of suffering from bad headaches, indigestion, rheumatism and other problems as adults.

"Parents, school doctors and nurses and teachers should be aware that if a child complains of headaches there may be underlying causes," Psychiatrist Paul Fearon said in a telephone interview.

"Given that this study has shown that children with headaches are most likely to have adulthood complaints, if we could reduce childhood headaches by tackling the psychosocial problems around it we may be able to reduce the risk of adults developing these symptoms in the future."

Fearon and Matthew Hotopf analyzed data from a national child development study of 11,000 people born on the same day in Britain in 1958 who had been assessed regularly from the age of seven to 33.

They looked at the frequency of headaches recorded when the children were seven and 11 years old. The more headaches, the more likely the children were to develop adult symptoms.

"If they complained of headaches at both ages they were at even higher risk," said Fearon.

Depression, divorce, separation, chronic illness of either parent and mental illness in the family were also associated with recurrent headaches.

More than eight percent of seven year olds complained of headaches. By the time the children reached 11 the numbers had risen to 15.4 percent.

Children with frequent headaches also reported more backaches, indigestion, twitching, stomach ailments and psychological distress as adults.

Fearon said his findings, which are reported in the ***British Medical Journal***, could have important implications for public health because there is evidence that the prevalence of headaches in children in increasing in the developed world.

"If this is so, there may well be a corresponding increase in somatic (physical) and psychiatric symptoms as today's children become adults," he added.