Drug Gabapentin Effective in Treating Morning Sickness

Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy (NVP), commonly known as "morning sickness" are typical symptoms of pregnancy. However, they are often regarded as unpleasant. About 70 to 85 percent of pregnant women in the country are affected by morning sickness. According to experts, about 50 percent of the pregnant women experience both nausea and vomiting while 25 percent experience only nausea.

To help women avoid experiencing severe morning sickness after conceiving, a team of researchers from the University of Buffalo put forward a new drug named gabapentin.

Thomas Guttuso and colleagues found the anti-seizure and anti-pain drug more effective than anti-emetics, drugs approved for treating pregnant women affected with severe nausea and vomiting.

"I became interested in this drug for hyperemesis gravidarum (an extreme form of morning sickness) because I saw how effective it appeared to be in treating chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients who had failed treatment with conventional anti-emetics," Guttuso, said in a news release.

Safety and effectiveness of the drug was tested on seven pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum.

Researchers found the drug curing women. All the participants reported gabapentin medication helping them to reduce nausea (80 percent) and vomiting (94 percent).

"Within two hours of taking the first pill, most of the patients were feeling much better and several were able to start eating and drinking again. It was a pretty amazing thing to see," Guttuso, said.

However, the findings of the study were put on hold by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as two women part of the study, gave birth to babies with congenital defects.

Later as many studies and pregnancy registries in 2012 showed the rates of congenital defects among babies born to women taking the drug and general population similar, FDA removed the restriction on the study.

To re-assure the effectiveness of the drug to treat hyperemesis gravidarum, now the researchers are planning to conduct a large study.