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• Posted March 2, 2026

GLP-1 Drugs Might Ease Chronic Migraine, Study Says

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound might also help people manage migraines, a new study says.

Chronic migraine sufferers taking GLP-1 drugs were about 10% less likely to need ER care for a migraine attack compared to those taking a standard first-line migraine drug, researchers are scheduled to report at an upcoming meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago.

These patients also were less likely to be hospitalized for any reason or need a nerve block to ease their pain, results showed.

“People with chronic migraine often end up in the emergency room or they need to try several preventive medications before finding one that can work for them,” researcher Dr. Vitoria Acar said in a news release. She’s an internal medicine resident at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.

“Seeing these patterns of lower use of emergency care and lower use of drugs to stop migraines or trying additional drugs to prevent migraines among people taking GLP-1 drugs for other conditions suggests that these therapies may help stabilize the disease burden in ways that we haven’t fully appreciated yet,” Acar said.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, decreases appetite and slows digestion of food.

For the new study, researchers compared about 11,000 chronic migraine patients who had been prescribed a GLP-1 drug against another 11,000 patients who’d been prescribed the migraine drug topiramate.

People with chronic migraines have a headache 15 or more days per month for at least three months, with eight of those days featuring symptoms like throbbing pain, nausea or light sensitivity, researchers said in background notes.

The team used medical records to track both groups for a year.

Results showed that under 24% of GLP-1 users needed ER care, compared with more than 26% of those on topiramate.

GLP-1 patients were 10% less likely to need an ER visit; 14% less likely to be hospitalized; and 13% less likely to undergo a nerve block procedure or receive a triptan prescription, researchers found.

The patients using weight-loss drug also were less likely to be prescribed new migraine medications — 48% less likely to start valproate; 42% less likely to start calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies; 35% less likely to start tricyclic antidepressants; and 23% less likely to start a class of drugs called gepants.

“Chronic migraine often overlaps with metabolic and inflammatory conditions such as obesity, insulin resistance, sleep apnea and depression, which can make treatment more difficult,” Acar said. 

“Early research is looking at whether GLP-1 drugs’ anti-inflammatory and neurovascular effects could play a role in migraine treatment, not just through weight loss,” she added.

However, because this was an observational study, the researchers could not prove a direct cause-and-effect link between GLP-1 drug use and eased migraine symptoms.

Researchers are to present their findings at the AAN meeting, scheduled for April 18-22.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more on migraine.

SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology, news release, March 1, 2026