Migraine Treatment in Pregnancy and Lactation.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Since up to 40.9% of reproductive aged women have migraine-and reproductive-aged women often reproduce-it is essential that we have good information and guidelines regarding proper treatment of migraine during pregnancy and lactation.

RECENT FINDINGS: A review of articles published in the last year on the treatment of migraine during pregnancy and lactation found dishearteningly little. Nevertheless, this article will review the risk/safety information related to migraine treatment in both pregnancy and lactation, citing both new and less recent publications. There is little if any formal research is being carried out on pharmacotherapy for migraine that occurs during pregnancy or lactation. This is likely due to two issues: (1) neurology offers little training in female sex hormones, while gynecology is a surgical field; (2) there is the ever-present concern of litigation if any bad outcome occurs, yet there is no designation of "legally safe" that can be applied to a drug's use in pregnancy and lactation.