Women may enroll in the registry at any time during pregnancy, although the ideal time of enrollment would be before prenatal screening. It is a migraine-specific serotonin agonist that works at multiple receptor sites. In clinical trials, self-administration of the nasal spray resulted in significant pain relief and decreased pain intensity and nausea, compared with placebo. Patients began to feel headache relief as early as 30 minutes after treatment with dihydroergotamine. As many as 60 percent of patients responded within two hours, and up to 70 percent responded within four hours, following a single 2-mg dose.
Side effects are usually mild and transient.
In clinical trials, the most common side effects were rhinitis, altered sense of taste, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and application site reaction. From 1991 to 1993, an estimated 263,000 children in this age group resided in the Atlanta area. The average annual prevalence rate was 1.1 cases per 1,000 children in this age group. The mean age at earliest known diagnosis was 2.9 years. Recent recommendations from the 1994 Joint Committee on Infant Hearing specify universal newborn screening by age three months and the initiation of appropriate intervention by age six months.