Comparison between ginger and vitamin B6 efficacy in the treatment of neausea and vomiting during pregnancy

Introduction: Nausea and vomiting are among the most common complications
during pregnancy. The use of medication especially in the first weeks of
pregnancy may cause stress in pregnant woman and their family, because of the
risk of teratogenesity. We performed this study to determine the effectiveness of
ginger compared to vitamin B6 for treatment of nausea and vomiting during
pregnancy.
Methods: A total number of 80 pregnant women with nausea and vomiting
before the 20th week of gestation that did not take any medication were included
in this randomized, double blind clinical trial during a period of 11 months. They
were randomly divided into 2 groups to take oral ginger or vitamin B6 for 4
days. All participants scored the severity of their nausea using visual analog scale
and recorded the number of vomiting episodes in the previous 24 hours before
treatment and during 4 consecutive days while taking the treatment. Seven days
later in a follow-up visit, a five- item Likert scale was used to assess the severity
of symptoms. The data were analyzed with SPSS software using t-test and
Kroskal- Wallis test.
Results: Severity of nausea (P<0.001) and spisodes of nausea (P<0.01) and
vomiting (P<0.0001) was decreased significantly in the ginger groups
(P<0.000), but comparing with vitamin B6 groups it didn't have a significant
difference in reducing severity of nausea and episodes of nausea as wellas
vomiting.
Conclusion: Ginger was effective for treatment of nausea and vomiting in
pregnancy, but it's application needs further studies to determine the proper
dosage and the impact of this drug on pregnant mothers and their fetus.