A study of more than 11,000 U.S. adults suggests an association between acid-suppression therapy, including PPIs, H2RAs, and generic antacids, and an increased risk of migraine and severe headaches compared with people who do not take these medications. The risk was 70% higher for those using PPIs, 40% higher for those taking H2RAs, and 30% higher for generic antacids.
The cross-sectional analysis, published in Neurology, included data from the 1999 to 2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
A total of 11,818 individuals provided information on their use of acid-suppression therapy and whether they had migraine or severe headache in the past 3 months.
According to the data, there was an association between higher risk of migraine or severe headache for all types of acid-suppression therapy and use of any type of the drugs compared with not using the drugs.
“These observations in the US adults agree with previous findings that migraine or severe headache is a potential adverse events of PPIs, the most efficacious and most frequently used type of acid suppressing medication, and further suggest that other classes of acid suppressing medications (H2RAs and generic antacids) may also be implicated for migraine and severe headache,” the researchers reported. “Future prospective analyses are needed to investigate migraine risk associated with acid suppressing medications while current evidence is sufficient to evaluate patients with migraine in light of recent deprescribing advice for PPIs.”