No Increase Seen in Neurodevelopmental Disorders With Prenatal Triptan Use

WEDNESDAY, May 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Children prenatally exposed to different triptan intensities and duration, alone or in combination with other preventive medications for migraine, do not have increased risk of neurodevelopmental outcomes, according to a study published online May 21 in Neurology.

Margherita Camanni, from the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy, and colleagues examined the effect of different intensities and durations of prenatal exposure to triptans on neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in children in a nationwide health registry study including pregnancies of women with migraine before pregnancy.

Data were included for 26,210 pregnancies of women with migraine: 4,929 were nonmedicated and 21,281 were medicated with triptans in the year of prepregnancy. The researchers identified four group-based trajectories of triptans alone and combined with preventive medications: discontinuers before (low use), early discontinuers (short-term low use), late discontinuers (moderate use), and late discontinuers (high use). During follow-up (mean, eight years), 4.3 percent of the children had a NDD. Compared with children of nonmedicated women, children born to women with any triptan trajectory had a slightly higher risk of NDD (magnitude range of the weighted hazard ratio, 1.05 to 1.16). When discontinuers before (low use) acted as a comparator or when analyzing speech/language disorders or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, these risks decreased to null. The risk of autism disorders was slightly, but not significantly, elevated with both triptan late discontinuation trajectories.

“Our results contribute to the limited existing literature and aid pregnant women with migraine and their health care providers in making evidence-based decisions about pharmacologic treatment with triptans and other migraine medications during gestation,” the authors write.

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