"The Use of Cannabis for Headache & Migraine"

Headache disorders are common, debilitating, and, in many cases, inadequately managed by existing treatments. Each year, 47% of the population experience headache, including migraine and some preclinical trials of cannabis for neuropathic pain have shown promising results, specifically for headache disorders. 


A sexual dimorphism exists for headache disorders, with women 2–3 times more likely to experience migraine and 1.25 times more likely to experience tension-type headache than men.

Historical reports, though not ideal forms of evidence, are important resources for understanding the potential use of cannabis in the treatment of headache disorders. Clinical publications between 1839 and 1937 provide valuable insights into the most effective practices, challenges, and benefits during an era when cannabis was commonly used to treat headache.

Currently, there is not enough evidence from well-designed clinical trials to support the use of cannabis for headache, but there are sufficient anecdotal and preliminary results...


- A review in NCBI.com indicate that cannabis is commonly used by patients to self-medicate for headache disorders and a retrospective analysis has shown a significant impact of cannabis in treating of headache and migraine and examining the role of the endocannabinoid system in migraine pathogenesis also suggest a potential therapeutic value for cannabis in the treatment of headache.

Cannabis also shows potential to interrupt specific stages in the pathogenesis of headaches and the researchers examine if a general deficiency in endocannabinoid tone could underlie headache disorders.

-The objective of another study, published in the Accpjournals.onlinelibrary, was to describe the effects of medical marijuana on the monthly frequency of migraine headache. Researchers concluded that the frequency of migraine headache was decreased with medical marijuana use.

-In a 2018 electronic survey in medicinal cannabis patients with headache, arthritis, and chronic pain researchers found that across all 21 illnesses that were treated with cannabis, headache was a symptom treated with cannabis in 24.9%. Headache was evaluated as a primary symptom being treated by medicinal cannabis across all primary illnesses (headache was the major symptom being treated with medical cannabis, among the primary illness categories)

-Finally, in Neurologylive.com in an advanced pre-meeting course at the Symposium in American Headache Society’s 2018, Eric P.  Baron, DO, presented an extensive review of the clinical findings for cannabis’s use in pain, and noted that its potential in headache disorders warrants further study.
He concluded that "Supporting evidence suggest that many cannabinoids and terpenes have strong anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, data are needed to determine the most effective ratios of cannabinoids, terpenes, and other compounds for pain and headache disorders.”