Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA.
Department of Psychology, Student of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA.
J Integr Med. 2020 Sep;18(5):416-424. doi: 10.1016/j.joim.2020.07.004. Epub 2020 Jul 18.
Few studies to date have measured the real-time effects of consumption of common and commercially available Cannabis products for the treatment of headache and migraine under naturalistic conditions. This study examines, for the first time, the effectiveness of using dried Cannabis flower, the most widely used type of Cannabis product in the United States, in actual time for treatment of headache- and migraine-related pain and the associations between different product characteristics and changes in symptom intensity following Cannabis use.
Between 06/10/2016 and 02/12/2019, 699 people used the Releaf Application to record real-time details of their Cannabis use, including product characteristics and symptom intensity levels prior to and following self-administration; data included 1910 session-level attempts to treat headache- (1328 sessions) or migraine-related pain (582 sessions). Changes in headache- or migraine-related pain intensity were measured on a 0-10 scale prior to, and immediately, following Cannabis consumption.
Ninety-four percent of users experienced symptom relief within a two-hour observation window. The average symptom intensity reduction was 3.3 points on a 0-10 scale (standard deviation = 2.28, Cohen's d = 1.58), with males experiencing greater relief than females (P < 0.001) and a trend that younger users (< 35 years) experience greater relief than older users (P = 0.08). Mixed effects regression models showed that, among the known (i.e., labeled) product characteristics, tetrahydrocannabinol levels 10% and higher are the strongest independent predictors of symptom relief, and this effect is particularly prominent in headache rather than migraine sufferers (P < 0.05), females (P < 0.05) and younger users (P < 0.001). Females and younger users also appear to gain greater symptom relief from flower labeled as "C. indica" rather than "C. sativa" or other hybrid strains.
These results suggest that whole dried Cannabis flower may be an effective medication for treatment of migraine- and headache-related pain, but the effectiveness differs according to characteristics of the Cannabis plant, the combustion methods, and the age and gender of the patient.
迄今为止，很少有研究在自然条件下测量常用且市售大麻制品治疗头痛和偏头痛的实时效果。本研究首次检查了使用干大麻花（美国最广泛使用的大麻制品类型）实时治疗头痛和偏头痛相关疼痛的有效性，以及不同产品特性与大麻使用后症状强度变化之间的关联。
2016 年 6 月 10 日至 2019 年 2 月 12 日期间，699 人使用 Releaf 应用程序实时记录他们的大麻使用详细信息，包括使用前和使用后产品特性和症状强度水平；数据包括 1910 次治疗头痛（1328 次）或偏头痛相关疼痛（582 次）的治疗尝试。在使用大麻前后，使用 0-10 分制测量头痛或偏头痛相关疼痛强度的变化。
94%的使用者在两小时观察窗口内体验到症状缓解。平均症状强度降低 3.3 分（0-10 分制，标准差=2.28，Cohen's d=1.58），男性比女性缓解程度更大（P<0.001），且年轻用户（<35 岁）比年长用户缓解程度更大（P=0.08）。混合效应回归模型显示，在已知（即标记）的产品特性中，四氢大麻酚水平为 10%及以上是症状缓解的最强独立预测因子，这种效果在头痛患者中尤为明显（P<0.05），女性（P<0.05）和年轻用户（P<0.001）中更为明显。女性和年轻用户似乎也从标记为“C. indica”的花中获得了更大的症状缓解，而不是“C. sativa”或其他杂交品种。
这些结果表明，整个干大麻花可能是治疗偏头痛和头痛相关疼痛的有效药物，但有效性因大麻植物的特性、燃烧方法以及患者的年龄和性别而异。
