People with chronic migraines who use cannabis products suffer much more from ‘rebound headaches’ than those who do not use the drugs, a preliminary study indicates.
Although a link has been discovered, it is still unclear whether weed leads the rebound headache directly, the study authors told WordsSideKick. The study also did not specify what types of cannabis products the patients used, so it is unknown whether certain products show a greater correlation with rebound headaches than others.
A rebound headache, also known as a medication overuse headache (MOH), occurs when someone already has a headache disorder, such as chronic migrainedevelop either a new type of headache or their existing headache worsens significantly over time because they use headache medication too often, according to the International classification of headache disorders (ICHD 3).
A formal diagnosis of rebound headache means that a person has regularly used one or more drugs to treat their headache for more than three months. This usually means taking more than two or three days a week of painkillers or antimigraine medicines, according to Harvard Health. In addition, a diagnosed person will experience headaches on 15 or more days each month. The rebound headache usually goes up when patients stop using the medicine too much.
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This headache affects about 1% to 3% of people in the general population and nearly one-third of patients seeking treatment for headaches at specialized clinics, such as the Stanford Headache Center, study author Dr. Niushen Zhang, a clinical assistant professor. and director of the Headache Fellowship program at Stanford University of Medicine, Live Science said in an email.
Now, in their new study, Zhang and her colleagues found that people with chronic migraines are six times more likely to experience rebound headaches when they use cannabis, compared to migraine patients who do not use the drug. The scientists will present the unpublished research at the 73rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, which will be held virtually in April.
“This study shows that there is a link between cannabis use and headaches being overused in people with chronic migraines,” Zhang said.
However, research is still in its early days, and ‘it is unclear at the moment whether patients use cannabis to use drugs too much, and whether cannabis contributes to the development. [of] headaches, or both, ”Zhang said. Future studies will be needed to determine whether cannabis contributes to the rise of rebound headaches, and if so, what it means for those with chronic migraines, she said.
For now, “it’s too early to make any clinical recommendations based on current findings,” Zhang added.
Zhang and her colleagues launched their study after noting that a number of their patients with chronic migraines and MOH also use cannabis products, she said. As there is very little research on cannabis use and these headache disorders, the team decided to investigate the association further.
“Our study is the first of its kind to assess the risk of drug overuse headaches in chronic migraine patients using marijuana,” Zhang said.
The team retrieved data from the Stanford Research Repository Cohort Discovery Tool, which collects information on chronic migraine patients treated between 2015 and 2019. This included 368 adults who had chronic migraines for at least a year; 150 reported cannabis products, and 218 did not use.
The team then assessed which patients were diagnosed with MOH, taking into account other variables, such as how often they had migraines, how long they had used marijuana, when they were diagnosed with MOH and what other medications they had taken for headaches.
They found that 212 patients had MOH, and that patients who reported using cannabis would be much more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. There was also a significant link between cannabis use, opioid use and repair headaches, they found. “Some of the patients in the study who used cannabis also used opioids, or had a history of them,” Zhang said.
Again, future studies will need to examine whether and how these drugs increase the risk of rebound headaches, as well as what happens if people take them at the same time.
The cannabinoids in cannabis products binds to receptors in the body that regulate the perception of pain, and there is evidence that cannabis products can help relieve certain types of chronic pain, Live Science reported earlier. As this new study reveals a possible link between the drug and rebound headaches, more research will be needed to see if cannabis makes migraine patients rule for worse headaches, Zhang said.
Again, it’s too early to say for sure.
Originally published on Live Science.