TUESDAY, Dec. 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Headache and migraine patients, take note: medical marijuana may help ease your pain.
The findings follow an analysis of data collected by a Canadian phone app that gathered feedback offered by 1,300 headache sufferers and nearly 700 migraine sufferers who used marijuana to treat their head pain.
“We found that self-reported headache and migraine severity were reduced by nearly 50% from before to after cannabis use,” said study author Carrie Cuttler. She is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.
But a lot of unanswered questions remain. For one, it’s not clear if pot was any better at cutting down headache pain than conventional medicine. “We didn’t directly compare cannabis to conventional treatments,” said Cuttler, “so we don’t know if it is more or less effective.”
Also, the jury remains out as to what particular compound might be causing the reductions. The team found that when it came to head pain control, it didn’t matter how much tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD) was in a particular batch of pot. THC and CBD are the most commonly studied ingredients in marijuana, Cuttler’s team noted.
“[So] it could be one of the other 100-plus phytocannabinoids in the cannabis plant,” she said, adding that “there is simply not enough research on these other constituents to know right now.”
At the same time, “I have always wondered whether cannabis simply reduces the emotional distress surrounding and exacerbating the pain, which makes the pain more bearable/tolerable,” Cuttler said. “In other words, perhaps cannabis makes people care less about the pain?” But again, the study did not address this possibility.
“We did, however, find that cannabis was not associated with medication overuse headache,” she noted, “which is a common pitfall of more conventional treatments.” Such headaches can afflict patients who tend to use the same medication again and again to treat their headaches.
And the team also observed that when it comes to using pot to treat headaches, more did not seem to mean more. “We didn’t find any evidence that higher doses were more, or less, effective than lower doses,” said Cuttler, “which might suggest that micro-dosing could be sufficient for some people.”
Source: WebMD
Interesting study. I have heard a lot about the medical benefits of marijuana, but I still hear more about the benefits of cannabidiol and its derivatives, especially CBD oils. From personal experience, I can say that I have never tried marijuana in its pure form, but cannabidiol really saves from migraines, frequent depressions, anxiety, and even insomnia. Since childhood, I suffer from many emotional and mental disorders. And my psychotherapist recommended me to try CBD oil. It really helped to cope and reduce my symptoms. Marijuana, I suppose, has similar properties, but it contains narcotic substances … I, after all, understand correctly, don’t I?
I used to have the worst migraines with auras, I wasn’t able to see my left eye in the mirror.(I’d usually have migraines every week). I started using cannabis and CBD and the last time I had one was 3 months ago.