According to a study published in “Frontiers in Neurology”, medical cannabis (MC) appears to exhibit a beneficial effect on duration and onset of migraine headache episodes in adults. The main focus of this review was to investigate safety and efficacy of MC therapy for migraine in adults. The researchers searched through EMBASE, Pub Med, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science for studies involving individuals aged 18 and above.

Notably, 2 reviewers independently evaluated trials for eligibility. Researchers carried out a narrative synthesis of studies covered. A set of 12 articles including 1,980 individuals were included. After 6 months of the administration, MC decreased vomiting and nausea linked with migraine. In addition, MC lowered the number of migraine days after 30 days and frequency of migraine headaches each month. MC was 51% more efficacious than non-cannabis therapies in relieving migraines.

In comparison to amitriptyline, MC lowered migraine frequency and terminated migraine attacks in certain (11.6%) users. The use of MC was linked with medication overuse headaches, and adverse effects were often mild and appeared in 43.75% of people using cannabis medications. Thus, MC has the potential to reduce the duration and frequency of migraine headaches in adults.