Taking acid-reducing drugs has been linked to increased migraine risk

American scientists conducted a cross-sectional study and found that taking drugs from different groups to reduce gastric acidity is associated with a significantly increased risk of migraine and other types of severe headache. A publication about this appeared in the journal Neurology Clinical Practice. Margaret Slavin of the University of Maryland and colleagues analysed data from the NHANES national survey from 1999-2004. The researchers were interested in the potential association between migraine attacks or severe headaches (at least once in the previous three months) and the use of acid-reducing drugs from the groups of proton pump inhibitors (omeprazole and others), histamine H2-receptor blockers (famotidine and others) and antacids (aluminium, magnesium and calcium compounds).

The final analysis included data from 11818 American adults. It turned out that taking any acid-reducing drugs was associated with a marked increase in the risk of migraine or severe headache. For proton pump inhibitors, the increase was 70 per cent, H2-receptor blockers 40 per cent and antacids 30 per cent. The cause-and-effect nature of this relationship was not investigated in this study.