Studies Find Modest Reductions in Migraine Drug Use and Asthma Exacerbations Among People Taking GLP-1RA Medications

Studies linking GLP-1RA drugs to reduced migraine medication use and reduced asthma symptoms were presented to the European Congress on Obesity in Turkey, GB News reported. The findings add to a body of evidence suggesting glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist drugs may have benefits beyond weight loss.

In England, GLP-1RA drugs are already being prescribed to help cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

One study examined Danish health registries between 2022 and 2024 and included data on 150,000 people who started Wegovy. Of the 150,000 people who started Wegovy, 6,800 had a prescription for migraine medicine in the year before starting weight-loss treatment.

Among women with a history of migraine, use of Wegovy for weight management was linked to a 7 per cent reduction in the use of triptan-class drugs one year after starting treatment.

After women started taking Wegovy, the use of migraine medicines started to gradually decrease. The reduction in triptan use was only observed among women. A separate study examined data from Danish health registries on 27,523 people prescribed both GLP-1 medicines for obesity or type 2 diabetes and asthma inhalers.

GLP-1 use was linked with a 26 per cent fall in the number of asthma exacerbations and a 14 per cent drop in the use of asthma inhaler reliever. Use of GLP-1 drugs was associated with significant reductions in exacerbation burden as well as reliever use, exposure to inhaled corticosteroids and pneumonia events, irrespective of whether the drugs were being used to treat obesity or type 2 diabetes.

The asthma study authors reached the same conclusion.

Dr Kjell Erik Julius Hakansson, one of the authors from Copenhagen University Hospital, said there is a high chance that the weight loss is a major contributor to these results. “A common symptom in both asthma and obesity is shortness of breath, and the presence of excess fatty tissue creates a pro-inflammatory state in the body in general,” Dr Kjell Erik Julius Hakansson said.

“There’s also evidence from other studies suggesting that the inflammation caused by excess adipose tissue is distinct from the ‘classic’ asthma inflammation, which often is driven by allergies or cells called eosinophils,” he added.