The impact of exposure to tobacco smoking and maternal trauma in fetal life on risk of migraine

Abstract

IntroductionPrenatal period is the key time in human development. Many prenatal factors are well-known and increase the risk of developing diseases’ after birth. Few studies indicated the link between the prenatal period and the prevalence of migraine in childhood and adolescence so far. We decided to broaden current knowledge and investigate whether the prenatal factors influence the prevalence of migraine in adulthood. The objective of this study is to provide evidence of relationship between in utero environment and risk of migraine.MethodsIn total 266 females (136 in the migraine group, 130 in the control group) and 80 males (35 in the migraine group, 45 in the control group), aged 18–65 participated in the study. The quality of prenatal environment was characterized on the basis of mother’s and father’s education, tobacco smoke exposure, alcohol consumption, and traumatic event during pregnancy, which are considered as prenatal factors and affect on fetal development.ResultsMigraine occurrence in adulthood was significantly associated with maternal tobacco smoking during pregnancy (OR 3.42, 95% CI 1.54–7.61, p = 0.036) and traumatic event during pregnancy (OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.24–4.13, p = 0.020).DiscussionOur study suggests that the fetal programming effect of tobacco smoking exposure and maternal trauma is not limited to prenatal life and is suggested as having a role in adulthood. Our findings support evidence that migraine adulthood can be partly influenced by early life conditions.

Causal Associations of Modifiable Risk Factors With Migraine: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization Analysis

“…We found that maternal smoking was linked to an increased risk of migraine in the UKB cohort (OR = 1.02, P = 0.004). The pathophysiology that causes this relationship is not fully understood, but one of the possible mechanisms is that maternal smoking may alter fetal brain development by a mechanism that leads to an increased risk of migraine later in life [ 34 ]. This finding is consistent with other research results that have shown a relationship between maternal smoking and migraine in offspring [ 14 , 34 ].…”

“…The pathophysiology that causes this relationship is not fully understood, but one of the possible mechanisms is that maternal smoking may alter fetal brain development by a mechanism that leads to an increased risk of migraine later in life [ 34 ]. This finding is consistent with other research results that have shown a relationship between maternal smoking and migraine in offspring [ 14 , 34 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first study that employed MR to establish a causal relationship between maternal smoking and migraine.…”