There’s excellent news for individuals with migraine who take frequent medication earlier than or throughout being pregnant — a brand new research discovered no improve in neurodevelopmental problems similar to autism and ADHD of their youngsters. The research, which checked out medication used for migraine assaults referred to as triptans, is revealed on Could 21, 2025, on-line in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The research doesn’t show that there’s a hyperlink between these medication and neurodevelopment problems.
“These outcomes are encouraging for individuals with migraine, who could also be taking these medication earlier than they even know that they’re pregnant, and that is useful data for his or her physicians, who could make extra knowledgeable selections about treating individuals with debilitating migraine assaults,” stated research creator Hedvig Nordeng, PhD, of the College of Oslo in Norway.
For the research, researchers used well being registry information for your entire Norwegian inhabitants and recognized 26,210 pregnancies in feminine contributors with migraine at the beginning of being pregnant. Of these, 21,281 individuals, or over 80%, had taken triptans within the yr earlier than they turned pregnant and 4,929 of these with migraine had not taken any triptans throughout that point. For many who took the medication, researchers divided them into 4 teams: individuals who had low use of triptans and stopped utilizing them earlier than being pregnant (42%); individuals who elevated utilizing triptans six months earlier than being pregnant and stopped utilizing them in early being pregnant (31%); individuals who had reasonable triptan use earlier than being pregnant and continued into early being pregnant (21%); and individuals who used triptans earlier than and through being pregnant (6%).
Then researchers adopted the youngsters born for a median of eight years and up till they have been 14 years previous for some. They checked well being registries for diagnoses of neurodevelopmental problems together with autism spectrum dysfunction, behavioral problems, studying and mental disabilities, speech and language and developmental coordination problems and a spotlight deficit hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD).
General, 1,140 youngsters, or 4.3%, have been identified with a neurodevelopmental dysfunction throughout the research. The most typical have been ADHD and speech and language problems. A complete of two.2% of the youngsters of individuals with the very best use of triptans have been identified with ADHD, in comparison with 2.1% of the youngsters of individuals with migraine who didn’t use the medication. A complete of 1.1% of the youngsters of individuals with the very best use of the medication have been identified with speech and language problems, in comparison with 1.0% of kids of people that didn’t use the medication. When researchers adjusted the outcomes to account for different components that would have an effect on the chance of neurodevelopmental problems, similar to a mum or dad having a neurodevelopmental dysfunction, folic acid consumption or use of different medication similar to opioids or antidepressants, they discovered no elevated danger for neurodevelopmental problems amongst youngsters uncovered to triptans prenatally.
“Migraine impacts nearly one in 5 of individuals of childbearing age,” Nordeng stated. “Whereas signs usually enhance throughout being pregnant, about 8% of individuals expertise worsening assaults throughout being pregnant, which might result in elevated dangers of each maternal and fetal problems, so it is vital to have remedy choices obtainable.”
A limitation of the research was that researchers didn’t confirm that folks took their migraine medicines, solely that they crammed their prescriptions, so the precise drug publicity could also be completely different than the estimates.