In a new study, researchers found that inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported headache severity by nearly half.
The research was conducted by a team at Washington State University.
The study is the first to use big data from headache and migraine patients using cannabis in real-time. Previous studies have asked patients to recall the effect of cannabis use in the past.
There has been one clinical trial indicating that cannabis was better than ibuprofen in alleviating headaches, but it used nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid drug.
In the study, the researchers analyzed data from the Strainprint app, which allows patients to track symptoms before and after using medical cannabis purchased from Canadian producers and distributors.
The information was submitted by more than 1,300 patients who used the app over 12,200 times to track changes in headache from before to after cannabis use, and another 653 who used the app more than 7,400 times to track changes in migraine severity.
The team found that inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported headache severity by 47.3% and migraine severity by 49.6%.
They saw no evidence that cannabis caused “overuse headache,” a pitfall of more conventional treatments which can make patients’ headaches worse over time.
But they did see patients using larger doses of cannabis over time, indicating they may be developing tolerance to the drug.
The researchers also noted that cannabis concentrates, such as cannabis oil, produced a larger reduction in headache severity ratings than cannabis flower.
There was no difference in pain reduction among cannabis strains that were higher or lower in levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), two of the most commonly studied chemical constituents in cannabis, also known as cannabinoids.
Since cannabis is made up of over 100 cannabinoids, this finding suggests that different cannabinoids or other constituents like terpenes may play the central role in headache and migraine relief.
One author of the study is Carrie Cuttler, an assistant professor of psychology.
The study is published in The Journal of Pain.
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