Sujan Poudel, Jonathan Quinonez , Jinal Choudhari, Zachary T.
The following keywords were used: “Cannabis,” “Medical Marijuana,” “Headache,” “Cannabis and Migraine,” “Cannabis and Headache.” This literature study demonstrates that medical cannabis use decreases migraine duration and frequency and headaches of unknown origin.
Cannabis has a rooted history for both medical and recreational use.
Hence, with minimal research studies on the effectiveness of medical cannabis on different medical conditions, review papers are essential to summarize how this compound can be effective in headache and migraine management.
We included the studies published between 1987 and 2020, human studies in the English language, including adults 18 years and older, whereas articles involving children less than 17 years and pregnant females were excluded from this study.
Cannabinoids, similar to other analgesics and recreational drugs, act on the brain’s reward system, especially on cannabinoid one receptor localized at the same place as opioid receptors on nucleus accumbens and functions by overlapping the antinociceptive pathways .
Despite such side effects, patients have an overall favorable view of using medical cannabis along with or in place of medications, as it was reported to decrease the frequency and duration of migraines.
Ogborne et al., in 2000, interviewed 50 medical cannabis users recruited via advertisements in newspapers and job boards .
Combination studies of Amitriptyline and THC or Amitriptyline and CBD should be done in order to find the improvement in efficacy and dose reduction of Amitriptyline for abortive as well as curative treatment.
Despite the limitations of the above studies, medical cannabis is an effective alternative treatment for managing headache and migraine symptoms. Our review article shows that cannabis use is picking up in patients with chronic pain and can be expected to continue to rise upwards in the face of increasing societal awareness and availability of legal cannabis .
While medical cannabis is in a “disorganized realm” at the moment due to a lack of substantial research and medical provider education and patient education, this field is evolving and expanding to provide up-to-date research for both patient and doctor.
Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work.
Finally, the authors would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive feedback.
© Copyright 2021Poudel et al.
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