The diabetes drug that cuts migraines in half and could help millions worldwide
Migraines can be, at best, an inconvenience and, at worst, totally debilitating. Your work rate and relationships can suffer when you're not feeling yourself.
And when pills and painkillers don't touch the sides, it can be hard knowing where to turn. However, a common diabetes drug may be the next big thing for migraine relief, according to an interesting new study.
In fact, the diabetes medication that lowers brain fluid pressure has cut monthly migraine days by more than half. The findings from the clinical study were presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2025.
As part of the research, obese patients with chronic migraines who took liraglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, experienced over 50 per cent fewer headache days and significantly improved daily functioning without meaningful weight loss.
Researchers believe the drug's ability to lower brain fluid pressure is the key, potentially opening a completely new way to treat migraines. The effects were fast, sustained, and came with only mild side effects.
"Most patients felt better within the first two weeks and reported quality of life improved significantly," said lead researcher Dr Simone Braca.
"The benefit lasted for the full three-month observation period, even though weight loss was modest and statistically non-significant."
Researchers at the Headache Centre of the University of Naples Federico II gave GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide to 26 adults with obesity and chronic migraine - which is when you have more than 15 headaches a month.
Afterwards, patients reported having 11 fewer headaches per month, while their work, study, and sociability got significantly better.
What's more, although the patients also lost a bit of weight - with their BMI dropping slightly from 34.01 to 33.65 - this was found to have had no link to how often they experienced headaches.
This strengthened the study's belief that pressure modulation, not weight loss, is behind the improvement.
"We think that... these drugs produce a decrease in the release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a key migraine-promoting peptide," Dr Braca explained.
"That would pose intracranial pressure control as a brand-new, pharmacologically targetable pathway."
Mild side effects, mainly nausea and constipation, occurred in 38 per cent of participants, but it did not force them to drop out of the 12-week study.
Off the back of the study, a randomised, double-blind trial is now being planned by the same research team in Naples.
"We also want to determine whether other GLP-1 drugs can deliver the same relief, possibly with even fewer gastrointestinal side effects," Dr Braca added.
If confirmed, GLP-1-receptor agonists could offer a new treatment option for the estimated one in seven people worldwide who live with migraine, particularly those who do not respond to current preventives.
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