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Women with migraine at increased risk of having offspring with colic

PHILADELPHIA —Women with migraine were more likely to have an infant who is colicky, while fathers with migraine were not, according to study findings presented at the American Headache Society Scientific Meeting.

Amy Gelfand, MD, director of pediatric headache research at the University of California San Francisco and colleagues reviewed 1,419 online responses that assessed migraine, colic, anxiety, depression and allergy symptoms (number of surveys completed by women, 827). The mean age of female study participants was 28.9 years and 33.5% had migraine/probable migraine, while the mean age of the men in the study was 31.6 years and 20.8% had migraine/probable migraine. 

Researchers found that maternal migraine increased the odds for infant colic: OR = 1.7 (1.3-2.4). Odds the infant would have colic increased as the woman’s number of headache days increased: OR = 2.5 (1.2-5.3) in women who had 15 or more headache days per month and there was what researchers called a “borderline” association between a mother with ananxiety and migraine having a baby with colic.

Conversely, Gelfand and colleagues wrote that paternal migraine was not linked to infant colic: OR = 1 (0.7-1.5). However, men with depression or anxiety were more likely to have a baby with colic [OR = 2.4 (1.44-3) and OR = 1.7 (1.1-2.7)], respectively.

 

Biological mothers with migraine were more likely to have an infant who is colicky, while fathers with migraine were not, according to study findings presented at the American Headache Society Scientific Meeting.

Source:Adobe

Researchers indicated that further research is needed to determine the mechanisms underlying these findings.

“New moms who are armed with knowledge of the connection between their own history of migraine and infant colic can be better prepared for these often difficult first months of a baby and new mother’s journey,” Gelfand said in a press release.

Clinicians should provide women with a history of migraine with resources and education about infant crying, she and her colleagues wrote in the abstract. – by Janel Miller

Reference: Gelfand A. The association between parental migraine and infant colic: A cross-sectional, web-based, US survey study. Presented at: American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting; July 11-14, 2019; Philadelphia.

Disclosures: Healio Primary Care was unable to determine the authors’ relevant financial disclosures prior to publication.