Haifa, Israel: Patients who engage in cannabis inhalation for extended periods of time are likely to report reductions in migraine frequency, according to clinical data published in the journal Brain Sciences.
A team of Israeli researchers assessed the impact of prolonged cannabis use (median treatment duration = three years) on the frequency of monthly migraine attacks.
The majority of subjects (61 percent) in the cohort reported a greater than 50 percent reduction in monthly migraine attacks following the initiation of cannabis therapy. Those patients who responded favorably to cannabis treatment also reported reducing their anti-migraine medication intake, particularly their use of opioids and tryptamine-based drugs.
Authors concluded, “These findings indicate that MC results in long‐term reduction of migraine frequency in >60 percent of treated patients and is associated with less disability and lower anti-migraine medication intake.”
Prior research has reported that subjects who frequently suffer from migraines possess significantly lower levels of endogenous cannabinoids as compared to matched controls.
Full text of the study, “Migraine frequency decrease following prolonged medical cannabis treatment: A cross-sectional study,” appears in Brain Sciences. Additional information on cannabis and migraines appears online.