Migraine in pregnancy

doi:10.1136/bmj.39559.675891.AD

BMJ 2008;336:1502-1504 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39559.675891.AD

Practice

Pregnancy Plus

Migraine in pregnancy

Peter J Goadsby, professor ¹, Jay Goldberg, associate professor², Stephen D Silberstein, professor³

¹ Headache Group, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0114, USA , ² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA , ³ Jefferson Headache Center, Philadelphia, PA

Correspondence to: P J Goadsby, Headache Group, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco CA 94143-0114 USA peter.goadsby@ucsf.edu

The authors explore whether migraine affects pregnancy, howpregnancy alters migraine, and how to treat and prevent migrainein pregnancy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Migraine is common, with a one year prevalence of 12-15% inthe Western world.¹ The case described here (see the Scenariobox) illustrates many of the problems that arise when a patientwho has migraines becomes pregnant.

A 32 year old woman with a history of episodic headachehas recently become aware she is pregnant. She has had troublesomeheadaches from childhood. She has no other medical problems.Her sister and mother have migraines. She is a non-smoker. Inthe previous five years, her headaches have become more frequent,with five to seven attacks a month of disabling left or rightsided, throbbing pain around the parietal and temporal region.The pain is aggravated by physical activity and any movementand associated with nausea and marked vomiting, prominent photophobia,and phonophobia. The attacks last two to three days. She hadno aura symptoms. Neurological and general physical examinationswere normal, . . . [Full text of this article]