![[DALL·E]](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_glossy,ret_img,w_750,h_375/https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/psychedelic-brain-1-750x375.jpg)
New research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology suggests that people who have used classic psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin at some point in their lives may be less likely to experience frequent bad headaches. Analyzing data from a large British cohort, researchers found that lifetime psychedelic use was associated with a 25% reduction in the odds of reporting frequent headaches. These findings contribute to growing interest in the potential of psychedelics as a treatment for headache disorders, such as migraines and cluster headaches, which can be debilitating and difficult to manage with current medications.
Migraine and cluster headaches are two types of severe headache disorders that can significantly impact quality of life. Migraines affect about 15% of the population and are characterized by throbbing pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound. Cluster headaches are rarer but even more intense, often described as some of the worst pain a person can experience. Both conditions are typically treated with medications, but many patients struggle to find effective relief, and available treatments can have significant side effects.
The idea that psychedelics could help treat headache disorders is not new. Reports from the 1960s suggested that substances like LSD and psilocybin might have beneficial effects for headache sufferers. More recently, controlled clinical trials have provided further evidence that these compounds could reduce headache frequency and intensity. Psychedelics primarily work by interacting with serotonin receptors in the brain, which are also targeted by many conventional headache medications. This similarity has led researchers to explore whether psychedelics might offer a novel approach to managing these conditions.
“People with cluster headache and migraine often have an important impact on their quality of life due to the severe pain they are suffering during headache attacks and also because the treatments we have for cluster headache sometimes lack in efficiency or can not be used because of secondary effects,” explained study author Caroline Ran, a research specialist at the Centre for Cluster Headache at Karolinska Institutet.
“For example, Triptans, the first lie of treatment typically does not work for 1/4th of the patients. Because of this there is a need to develop new treatments for primary headache, and as people with headache (most typically cluster headache) sometimes report that they have self medicated with psychedelic substances with great success, we beleive that these compounds needs to be investigated more closely.”
For their new study, the researchers analyzed data from the National Child Development Study, a long-term British cohort study that has followed individuals born in 1958. The dataset included information on 11,251 participants who answered questions about their health and substance use in adulthood.
Participants were asked whether they often experienced bad headaches, with responses categorized as “yes” or “no.” They were also asked whether they had ever used classic psychedelics, specifically LSD or magic mushrooms. Those who reported using either substance at any point in their lives were classified as having a history of psychedelic use.
The researchers then performed statistical analyses to determine whether there was a relationship between lifetime psychedelic use and the likelihood of experiencing frequent bad headaches. The analysis accounted for several other factors that could influence headache risk, including sex, marital status, financial situation, body weight, physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, and use of other drugs such as cannabis and ketamine.
The results showed that people who had used psychedelics at some point in their lives were significantly less likely to report frequent bad headaches. Specifically, lifetime psychedelic use was associated with a 25% lower likelihood of having frequent headaches, even after adjusting for other factors.
Interestingly, when researchers analyzed the data separately for men and women, they found that the association was stronger in women. Women who had used psychedelics had a 30% lower chance of reporting frequent bad headaches, while the effect in men was not statistically significant. This sex difference could be due to various factors, including differences in headache prevalence (women are more likely to suffer from migraines) and differences in overall drug use patterns.
“There was a substantial difference between sexes, with a stronger effect in females which I was surprised by,” Ran told PsyPost. “Perhaps the difference is due to overall higher drug use in males, which constitutes a major confounding factor. We know that females are overall more severely affected by headache, and the results may also reflect underlying biological mechanisms.”
Further analyses showed that the effect was consistent for both recent and past psychedelic users, suggesting that the potential benefits might last long after the drug has been taken. However, the study could not determine whether psychedelics directly reduce headaches or whether people with frequent headaches are simply less likely to use psychedelics.
“We saw a lower proportion of headache in study participants who use psychedelic drugs in this analysis,” Ran explained. “Because of the nature of the data, we have studied we can not make any assumptions of cause and directionality of the effect. Which means that our study does not give any clear indications of whether these substances can be used as a treatment for headache.”
“However, the study adds to the body of evidence of a positive effect of psychedelic substances on headache, which warrant for future randomized controlled trials on these substances. Future studies will tell if psychedelic drugs can be used in headache treatment or not.”
This study aligns with previous research suggesting that psychedelics might help prevent or reduce headaches. Several small clinical trials have found that psilocybin and LSD derivatives can reduce the frequency and intensity of migraines and cluster headaches. For example, one study found that a single dose of psilocybin significantly reduced migraine symptoms for two weeks, while another reported that multiple doses of psilocybin decreased cluster headache frequency over a three-month period.
In addition to clinical trials, anecdotal reports from patients have long suggested that psychedelics may help alleviate headache disorders. Some people with cluster headaches, in particular, have claimed that taking small doses of psilocybin or LSD can end headache cycles or extend remission periods. While these reports have not been rigorously tested in large clinical trials, they provide further support for the idea that psychedelics might influence headache-related brain mechanisms.
One possible explanation for these effects is that psychedelics act on serotonin receptors in a way that helps regulate pain pathways in the brain. Some researchers have also suggested that psychedelics may have anti-inflammatory effects, which could be relevant for headaches, or that they influence hormone release, such as melatonin, which is known to play a role in migraine and cluster headaches.
But despite its large sample size, the new study has some limitations. The data on headaches were self-reported, meaning that participants’ responses may not perfectly reflect clinical headache diagnoses. The study also could not distinguish between different types of headaches, such as migraines and tension headaches, which might have different relationships with psychedelic use.
“The data analyzed is from a cohort study collected for other purpose than this specific study, therefore the study participants who were included in the headache group have not been diagnosed by a physician, which is always a drawback in scientific analysis,” Ran noted. “We may have included individuals in our analysis that have so called secondary headache which is caused by another underlying medical condition.”
Future studies should aim to explore the biological mechanisms underlying these potential benefits. Researchers could also investigate whether specific dosing regimens of psychedelics might be effective for preventing headaches and whether non-hallucinogenic derivatives of these drugs could provide similar benefits without the psychedelic effects.
“It’s important to remember that these substances are illegal (in most countries) and that the use of psychedelic drugs can cause severe undesirable effects that may be harmful to the user,” Ran added. “Although we are investigating them for medical purpose, we do not recommend people with headache to use them, and we are currently far from integrating them in clinical practice. Also, drugs used in clinical trials are produced in controlled settings, while street drugs may contain harmful contaminants.”
The study, “Lifetime classic psychedelic use and headaches: A cross-sectional study,” was authored by Zusanna Bjurenfalk, Alva Cosmo, Otto Simonsson, and Caroline Ran.
