[Difficult decisions: headache treatment in pregnancy and childhood]

Abstract

In pregnancy and in childhood, headache and migraine are challenging therapeutic problems.However, this review aims to give treatment recommendations for drug and non-drug therapy in both patient groups which are based on scientific evidence. Pregnant women often lose their migraine attacks which reappear during lactation. During pregnancy acute headache can be treated with paracetamol, in the middle trimenon also ASA and ibuprofen are allowed. Triptans for the acute treatment of migraine are contraindicated. As prophylactic agents, only metoprolol, fluoxetine, and magnesium are possible. In childhood, drug of first choice for acute headache treatment is ibuprofen. Migraine can also be treated by sumatriptan nasal spray. In migraine prophylaxis, flunarizine is drug of first choice, no prophylactic drugs are evaluated for tension-type headache in childhood. The problems of specific contraindications and of the off-label use of drugs in this particular life periods are discussed.