Treatment of migraine headaches with sumatriptan in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE

To review the literature for treatment of migraine headaches with sumatriptan during pregnancy.

DATA SOURCES: Studies and reports were located in International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970-September 2003) and MEDLINE (1966-week 3 September 2003).

DATA SYNTHESIS: Research has been performed to evaluate the risk of teratogenesis after sumatriptan exposure in pregnant patients. Data have been collected in areas including placental transmission of sumatriptan, prospective pregnancy registries, open-labeled and controlled prospective studies, and a retrospective prescription-linked study. As of August 6, 2004, no randomized controlled trials have been conducted with exposure to sumatriptan during pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS

Teratogenesis occurs in approximately 150 000 births per year which represents an incidence of 3-5%. Available literature to date indicates that exposure to sumatriptan during pregnancy has no additional risk of birth defects compared with the incidence in the general population.