People taking heartburn medications suffer more migraines and severe headaches, says a study published in Neurology: Clinical Practice. According to the authors, these observations are consistent with other studies that link migraine and headaches to the use of proton pump inhibitors (such as omeprazole), and the new study adds a correlation with the use of other types of antacids. The analysis is based on data from more than 11,800 adults between 1999 and 2004 in the United States.
Patricia Pozo - migraña antiácidos EN
Patricia Pozo Rosich
Neurologist, expert in migraine, head of section of the Neurology Service of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona
I think it is an interesting study conceptually, although it should be borne in mind that the study:
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Is epidemiological and retrospective
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did not adequately ask whether the diagnosis was migraine, and not headache.
But, most importantly, when the study was conducted (1999-2004), preventive treatment was scarce (at the population level) and proton pump inhibitors (such as omeprazole) were probably used due to the excessive use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other treatments used on [head] pain crises.
Since they couldn’t ask the frequency of headaches during the study, we cannot infer whether this is cause or consequence; but it is likely that those taking more antacids also had more headaches because they were actually taking more NSAIDs.
In the last three years, Dr. Pozo-Rosich has received consulting and medical education fees from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Lundbeck, Medscape, Novartis, Pfizer, Teva, and her research group has received research grants from AbbVie, Novartis, Teva, AGAUR, EraNet Neuron and the Instituto de Investigación Carlos III. In addition, her research group has conducted clinical trials with AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Lundbeck, Pfizer, Teva. She is associate editor of Cephalalgia, Headache, The Journal of Headache and Pain, Neurología and Revista de Neurología. She is the honorary secretary of the International Headache Society.
- Research article
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Margaret Slavin et al.
- Research article
- Peer reviewed
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