Weed inhalation helps ease migraine severity

Administering cannabis via inhalation methods appears to cut the perceived severity of headache and migraine by about 50 percent, although the effect weakens over time and patients therefore use increasing doses, a study has reported. This suggests that tolerance to the effects of cannabis may develop with continued exposure.

Using data from a medical cannabis app that allows patients to track symptoms before and after using different strains and doses of cannabis, researchers analysed the records of 1,306 medical cannabis users who used the app 12,293 times to track changes in headache and 653 medical cannabis users who used the app 7,441 times to track changes in migraine severity.

During most of cannabis use sessions, the majority of patients reported reductions in headache (89.9 percent) and migraine severity (88.1 percent). Headache and migraine severity decreased by 47.3 percent and 49.6 percent, respectively, following cannabis use.

Comparisons by gender revealed that men reported larger reductions in headache and migraine severity than did women. However, the size of the gender differences was quite small, the researchers noted.

Furthermore, the use of concentrates was associated with greater reductions than that of flower. There was evidence of tolerance to the effects with repeated cannabis use, indicating that tolerance might be a potential risk factor for the use of such substance in treating headache and migraine.

“However, cannabis does not lead to the medication overuse headache that is associated with other conventional treatments, meaning that use of cannabis does not make headaches or migraines worse over time,” the researchers said.

More studies are needed to rule out possible placebo effects and provide a more controlled examination of interactions between dose and type of cannabis, among others, they added.