Efficacy of Inhaled Cannabis for Acute Migraine Treatment

Phase 2 Completed 92 enrolled University of California, San Diego Migraine Research Foundation · collab

RandomizedCrossoverQuadruple-blindTreatment

Summary

This crossover study will evaluate 3 different treatments of vaporized cannabis (THC, THC/CBD mix, and CBD) and vaporized placebo cannabis for the acute treatment of migraine.

Timeline

Start: 2020-11-20
Primary completion: 2023-02-23
Completion: 2023-02-23

Outcome

Met primary endpoint

paper THC + CBD was superior to placebo at achieving pain relief (67.2% vs. 46.6%, odds ratio [95% confidence interval] 2.85 [1.22, 6.65], p = 0.016) PMID 41469488 ↗

Publications

Schuster NM, Wallace MS, Marcotte TD, Buse DC, Lee E, Liu L, Sexton M. Vaporized cannabis versus placebo for acute migraine: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. Headache. 2026 Feb;66(2):365-376. doi: 10.1111/head.70025. Epub 2025 Dec 30.

Drugs

Evaluation	Drug	Modality	Dose	Route
Subject	CBD	Unknown	12 %	Inhaled
Subject	THC	Unknown	5 %	Inhaled