Can CBD Help with Migraines? What the Latest Research Says

If you've ever experienced a migraine, you already know it is much more than a bad headache.

Migraine is a neurological disorder that can affect vision, concentration, digestion, energy, sensitivity to light and sound, and, of course, pain. For some people, an attack lasts several hours. For others, the effects can linger for days.

Scientists are also learning much more about what happens in the brain and nervous system during migraine, including the role of a signaling molecule called CGRP and the body's own endocannabinoid system (ECS).

That has raised an interesting question:

Could cannabinoids such as CBD have a role in migraine management?

Researchers are studying that question, and we now have considerably more information than we did just a few years ago.

Migraine Is More Than Head Pain

A migraine attack can occur in several phases:

Prodrome → Aura → Headache → Postdrome

Not everyone experiences every phase.

The prodrome can begin hours or even days before the headache and may include fatigue, mood changes, difficulty concentrating, food cravings, neck stiffness and sensitivity to light or sound.

Some people then experience an aura, which can involve visual disturbances, tingling, numbness or difficulty speaking. Most people with migraine, however, do not experience aura.

During the headache phase, symptoms may include throbbing or pulsating pain, nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light, sound or smells.

And even after the pain subsides, there may be a postdrome, sometimes called a "migraine hangover," when a person continues to feel exhausted, foggy or simply not quite themselves.

Understanding these phases helps explain something important:

The pain is only one part of what's happening during a migraine.

What's Happening in the Brain?

For many years, migraine was commonly explained as a problem involving changes in blood vessels.

We now know the story is much more complicated.

Migraine involves communication between the brain, nerves and chemical messengers involved in pain and sensory processing.

One of the most important discoveries has been the role of CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide).

During a migraine attack, activation of the trigeminal nervous system can trigger the release of CGRP. This molecule contributes to pain transmission and increased sensitivity within the nervous system.

The connection has become so well established that medications specifically designed to block CGRP or its receptor are now widely used to prevent and treat migraine.

Why Does One Person Get a Migraine When Another Doesn't?

Researchers also talk about something called a migraine threshold.

Rather than one trigger always causing a migraine, multiple factors can accumulate until someone's nervous system crosses its individual threshold.

For example:

Poor sleep + stress + dehydration + skipping lunch + hormonal changes

may be enough to trigger a migraine.

On another day, one of those factors by itself might cause no problem at all.

Common contributors can include:

• Changes in sleep

• Stress

• Dehydration

• Skipped meals

• Bright lights

• Strong smells

• Weather changes

• Hormonal fluctuations

This helps explain why migraine triggers can sometimes seem frustratingly unpredictable.

Women, Hormones and Migraine

Migraine affects women much more frequently than men, and hormones appear to be an important part of the story.

Changes in estrogen can influence migraine susceptibility, which may help explain why some women notice changes in migraine frequency around menstruation, pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause.

Researchers are also studying the relationship between estrogen and CGRP signaling.

For women approaching menopause, fluctuating hormone levels can make migraine patterns particularly unpredictable. Some women experience worsening migraines during perimenopause followed by improvement after menopause, although everyone's experience is different.

Where Does the Endocannabinoid System Fit In?

This is where the subject becomes especially interesting from a CBD perspective.

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a regulatory system found throughout the body and brain. It participates in numerous processes, including pain signaling, mood, sleep, immune activity and nervous-system function.

Our bodies naturally produce compounds called endocannabinoids, including anandamide and 2-AG.

Researchers have been investigating whether changes in endocannabinoid signaling could influence migraine susceptibility.

The ECS also intersects with several processes that researchers believe are important in migraine, including:

• Trigeminal nerve activity

• Pain signaling

• CGRP release

• Neuroinflammatory signaling

• Nervous-system excitability

This does not mean that an ECS imbalance has been proven to cause migraines.

But the overlap helps explain why scientists are interested in cannabinoids and migraine research.

What About CBD?

CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of the naturally occurring cannabinoids found in hemp and cannabis.

Unlike THC, CBD does not produce an intoxicating "high."

CBD also doesn't simply attach strongly to CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. Its biology is much more complicated. Researchers believe CBD can indirectly influence the endocannabinoid system while interacting with several other receptors and signaling pathways involved in pain, inflammation and nervous-system activity.

That has led researchers to investigate CBD in many different types of pain, including migraine.

CBD and CGRP: An Interesting Area of Research

Some of the most intriguing CBD research involves CGRP, the same molecule that has become such an important target in modern migraine medications.

In animal studies, researchers have used CGRP to produce migraine-like symptoms and then examined whether CBD changes those responses.

CBD has reduced certain migraine-like pain behaviors, including facial hypersensitivity and allodynia, in these models.

Researchers have also found effects on inflammatory signaling and other migraine-related pathways.

These findings are exciting because they give scientists possible biological explanations for how CBD could influence migraine-related processes.

But there is an important limitation:

These are primarily laboratory and animal studies.

Results in mice or rats cannot automatically be assumed to occur in humans.

What Do Human Studies Tell Us?

This is where migraine and cannabinoid research has recently taken an important step forward.

Researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial examining cannabinoids for acute migraine.

Participants treated separate migraine attacks with vaporized cannabis containing:

• THC

• CBD

• THC + CBD

• Placebo

The THC+CBD combination performed better than placebo for several important outcomes, including pain relief, pain freedom and freedom from the participant's most bothersome migraine symptom.

That's an intriguing finding.

But another result is equally important:

The CBD-dominant cannabis treatment by itself did not perform significantly better than placebo for the trial's main migraine outcomes.

That distinction matters.

This study should not be interpreted as evidence that CBD alone has been proven to treat migraine.

It does, however, provide further evidence that cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system deserve continued investigation.

What About Full-Spectrum CBD?

You may be wondering whether the THC+CBD finding tells us anything about full-spectrum hemp extracts.

At this point, we need to be careful making that comparison.

Full-spectrum CBD products contain CBD along with other naturally occurring hemp compounds, including minor cannabinoids, terpenes and legally permitted trace amounts of THC.

However, the THC+CBD formulation used in the migraine clinical trial contained considerably more THC than a federally compliant full-spectrum hemp product.

Therefore, we cannot assume that full-spectrum CBD would produce the same results.

More research specifically involving hemp-derived CBD and full-spectrum formulations is needed.

What Are People Reporting?

Observational studies provide another interesting piece of the puzzle.

In surveys of people using cannabis products for headache and migraine, many participants report improvements in migraine frequency, intensity, duration, nausea and sleep.

Some have also reported reducing their use of other headache medications.

These reports are certainly worth studying, but they have limitations.

People choosing to use cannabis are not randomly assigned to it, formulations vary widely, THC and CBD amounts differ, and self-reported improvement does not prove that a treatment caused the improvement.

That's why randomized controlled clinical trials remain so important.

So, Can CBD Help with Migraines?

Research has uncovered fascinating connections between migraine biology, CGRP, pain signaling and the endocannabinoid system.

Preclinical CBD research has produced encouraging findings.

Observational cannabis studies have reported positive experiences among many migraine patients.

And researchers have now demonstrated in a randomized clinical trial that one particular THC+CBD formulation can affect acute migraine symptoms.

At the same time, that same trial did not find CBD-dominant cannabis alone superior to placebo for its primary migraine outcomes.

That's why we believe it's important to distinguish between promising research and proven treatment.

At Cannafyl, we're fascinated by the rapidly developing science surrounding cannabinoids and the human body. We'll continue following this research as scientists learn more about CBD, the endocannabinoid system and migraine.

Because sometimes the most exciting part of science isn't claiming that we already have the answer.

It's watching the answer unfold.

References & Further Reading

American Headache Society. Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide-Targeting Therapies Are a First-Line Option for the Prevention of Migraine: An American Headache Society Position Statement Update. Headache. 2024.

American Migraine Foundation. Migraine Signs & Symptoms.

American Migraine Foundation. Migraine Attacks Are Not Random: Understanding the Threshold Concept.

Schuster NM, et al. Vaporized Cannabis versus Placebo for Acute Migraine: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial.

Greco R, et al. Research examining the endocannabinoid system and migraine pathophysiology.

Navratilova E, et al. Preclinical research examining cannabidiol and CGRP-induced migraine-like pain.

Additional peer-reviewed literature available through PubMed examining cannabinoids, CGRP, endocannabinoid signaling and migraine.

Medical Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. CBD is not an FDA-approved treatment for migraine. Talk with your healthcare provider about migraine symptoms, treatment options and possible interactions before adding CBD or cannabis products to your wellness routine.