Pregnant Women Solve Morning Sickness With Oral Steroids

Pregnant women now find solution towards their morning sickness ordeal. In a small study conducted by Joanna Adamczak, oral methylprednisolone (Solumedrol) helped reduce pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting. Within three days of starting therapy, Dr. Adamczak reported that patients had fewer episodes of nausea and vomiting with oral methylprednisolone.

The study included 110 patients with nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in a randomized clinical trial. All the patients had normal-appearing singleton intrauterine pregnancies and an estimated gestational age of eight to 14 weeks.

From medpage today:

"[Methylprednisolone] appears to be clinically effective and cost-effective for treatment of symptomatic nausea and vomiting of pregnancy," said Dr. Adamczak.

Typically, nausea and vomiting begin as early as the fourth week of pregnancy, peak at nine to 10 weeks, and resolve by 16 to 18 weeks. Although severe cases (hyperemesis gravidarum) complicate less than 1% of pregnancies, nausea and vomiting is the most common reason for hospitalization during the first trimester, she noted.

Promethazine suppositories are commonly used to treat the problem, Dr. Adamczak said. Although the methylprednisolone dose pack is a potential alternative to promethazine suppositories, the relative efficacy of the two treatments has not been studied extensively, she continued.

To compare the two therapies, her team enrolled 110 patients with nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in a randomized clinical trial. All the patients had normal-appearing singleton intrauterine pregnancies and an estimated gestational age of eight to 14 weeks, as determined by ultrasound.

Patients were randomized to promethazine suppositories 25mg every six hours or methylprednisolone 8mg TID on day 1, and then tapered over six days. After starting therapy, patients had follow-up visits at three, seven, and 14 days.

Although patient acceptance was not evaluated, the team observed that participants who had methylprednisolone did not complain, while some who took promethazine were not pleased about the medication.