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Common neurologic symptom found during pregnancy
What is the most common neurologic symptom found during pregnancy?
Headache is the most common neurologic symptom reported in pregnancy.
While headaches occur no more frequently in pregnant women than nonpregnant reproductive age women, headaches beginning during pregnancy are a cause for concern for serious underlying illnesses that occur with higher frequency in pregnant women.
These include subarachnoid hemorrhage, rapid expansion of a tumor, cortical venous thrombosis, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, pseudotumor cerebri, Listeria monocytogenes meningitis, or preeclampsia and eclampsia.
History and physical examination can usually exclude serious problems.
Other headaches that may begin during pregnancy include migraines, even though the majority of female migraineurs improve during pregnancy.
Onset of benign bifrontal nonmigrainous headaches is also seen in pregnancy and is most common during the first trimester.
Postpartum headache is the most common self-limited headache of the puerperium and occurs in up to 40% of all women.
Sources
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