Migraine is the third most common disease in the world, and women are three times more likely to suffer from migraines than men. Severe migraine attacks are disabling and require medication. Because many women suffer from migraines, it is important to know how safe migraine medicines are in pregnancy. Adding to the evidence, we have performed a systematic review and meta-analysis summarizing the safety profile of medications used to treat migraines. The study is published in Journal of Neurology and will support women and their doctors when deciding on how to best treat migraines!
The study team performed a systematic review and meta-analyses, looking for adverse pregnancy outcomes in patients who were prescribed any migraine medication in results from different studies that have been published. Of the medicines included, there was enough information about triptan to make an assessment, concluding that triptans do not appear to increase the risk of pregnancy outcomes like stillbirth, or the child being small for the time (what is known as gestational age).
According to Sandra Lopez Leon, MD, PhD, Quantitative Safety and Epidemiology for Neuroscience at Novartis, this highlights the need for more studies to address the lacking evidence. And the knowledge gap that the ConcePTION project is here to bridge. She conducted the study together with a team of researchers from Rutgers University, University of Oslo, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Eli Lilly. The results will add to the existing evidence for women with migraine that are considering pregnancy. It will also support doctor’s decisions on what treatments are best given the woman’s situation. It can also help health care professionals counsel women who have taken medication without knowing they are pregnant.
The paper is published in Journal of Neurology. Access requires a journal subscription:
Dudman DC, Tauqueer F, Kaur M, Ritchey ME, Li H, Lopez-Leon S, A systematic review and meta-analyses on the prevalence of pregnancy outcomes in migraine treated patients: a contribution from the IMI2 ConcePTION project, Journal of Neurology (2021), first online 1 April 2021
The ConcePTION project is also looking at how medicines transfer to breast milk and will launch a number of studies later this year. But if you are interested in how triptans transfer to breast milk, a group of Norwegian researchers recently published a paper on the transfer to triptans into human breast milk:
Amundsen S, Nordeng H, Fuskevåg O-M, Nordmo E, Sager G & Spigset O, Transfer of triptans into human breast milk and estimation of infant drug exposure through breastfeeding, Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology (2021), first online 17 March 2021
By Josepine Fernow