Headache during pregnancy

Abstract

A questionnaire was submitted to 430 women 3 days after delivery, asking mainly about features of headache before and during pregnancy, and their possible modification or recurrence; moreover, delivery modalities and the condition of the newborn were evaluated. One-hundred-and-twenty-six (29.3%) were found to be primary headache sufferers (IHS criteria, 1988), 81 of whom had migraine without aura (MO), 12 migraine with aura (MA), and 33 tension-type headache (TH). In all three groups, about 80% showed complete remission or a higher than 50% decrease in the number of attacks. The improvement was more evident after the end of the first trimester; this trend was common to the three primary headaches considered. In our series of primary headaches, there was only one case (MO) which began during pregnancy. In a subgroup of pluripara, headache maintained the improvement presented in the first pregnancy also during the following gravidic periods in about 50% of cases, whereas in the remaining 50% a worsening in parallel with successive pregnancies was found. Primary headaches "per se" do not seem to increase the pregnancy or delivery risks, nor the vitality of the newborn. During pregnancy, drug use was very much reduced and was restricted to a limited number of compounds.