A study has shown that obesity treatments are also effective for migraines. Migraines are vascular headaches experienced by 15% of the world's population. Symptoms include a throbbing head, sensitivity to light, and nausea.
A research team led by Professor Simone Baracca from Federico II University of Naples stated on the 24th, "Liraglutide reduces the average number of headache days per month by about half for patients with obesity." The research findings were published in the international journal "Headach" on the 17th.
Liraglutide is an obesity treatment in the GLP (glucagon-like peptide)-1 class, developed by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk under the name Saxenda. The subsequent GLP-1 class diabetes and obesity treatment is Wegovy (semaglutide).
The research team administered 1.2 mg of liraglutide daily to 31 obese patients with migraines and observed them for 12 weeks. Among the patients, 26 were female and 5 were male, with an average age of 45. The study found that the number of days on which patients experienced migraines decreased from an average of 20 days to 11 days per month.
Out of the 31 patients, 15 experienced a reduction in migraine frequency of over 50%. Among them, 7 had a 75% decrease in migraine frequency. One patient had her migraines completely disappear. However, 4 patients showed no change despite receiving liraglutide, indicating that not all patients benefited. The research team noted, "The effect on reducing migraines mostly appeared in the first week."
The research team believes that increased intracranial pressure within the skull affects migraines, and that liraglutide may have the potential to regulate intracranial pressure. The team plans to measure patients' intracranial pressure to see if the decrease in migraines is related to changes in intracranial pressure.
Dr. Ranfranco Pellicci, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), evaluated that "some individuals may have experienced a reduction in headaches due to the placebo effect," emphasizing that further research is needed. This suggests that the mere fact of taking the medication may have led to an expectation of improvement, resulting in perceived therapeutic effects.
References
Headach (2025), DOI : https://doi.org/10.1111/head.14991