Drug facts

Tirzepatide and headaches

By David Chen·Editor·Reviewed September 2026

What the label lists, and what it does not¹

An absence is only worth reporting with the list of what was read. For the Zepbound prescribing information, revision 8/2026, that is every place a side effect can be recorded:

Table 1 (section 6.1)

Sixteen reactions reported in at least 2% of participants on Zepbound and more often than on placebo, from nausea to low blood pressure. Headache is not one of them.

The rest of 6.1

Separate paragraphs on gastrointestinal reactions, pancreatitis, low blood pressure, hypersensitivity, injection site reactions and hair loss, then “Other Adverse Reactions”: acute kidney injury, gallbladder disease, low blood sugar, heart rate increase, dysesthesia, altered taste and dry mouth, then laboratory changes in amylase and lipase. No headache.

The sleep apnea trials

Reported as similar to the obesity trials, with no separate list.

Postmarketing (section 6.2)

Gastrointestinal, hypersensitivity, pulmonary and kidney entries. No headache.

The whole document

The word “headache” does not occur anywhere in it.

The one place the word appears²

The Medication Guide, the plain-language leaflet approved alongside the label, lists headache once. It is in the section on low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), as one of twelve signs and symptoms: dizziness or light-headedness, sweating, confusion or drowsiness, headache, blurred vision, slurred speech, shakiness, fast heartbeat, anxiety, irritability or mood changes, hunger, weakness and feeling jittery. The Mounjaro Medication Guide has the same list.

That is not the label saying tirzepatide causes headaches. It is the label saying a headache can be one sign of a different, listed problem.³ Section 5.7 says the drug lowers blood glucose and can cause hypoglycemia, and that the risk rises with insulin or an insulin secretagogue such as a sulfonylurea. In the diabetes trial, Study 2, glucose below 54 mg/dL was reported in 4.2% on tirzepatide against 1.3% on placebo, and in 10.3% of those also taking a sulfonylurea. Section 6.1 adds that Study 1, in people without diabetes, did not systematically capture low blood sugar. Insulin, sulfonylureas and the other interactions →

What an absence on a label means¹

A reaction earns a row in Table 1 by passing two tests: at least 2% of participants on Zepbound reported it, and more of them did than on placebo. Headache’s absence tells you it did not clear that bar in the pooled trials. It does not tell you that nobody in them had a headache, and it cannot tell you whether yours is related.

Nor is the absence a rule for every drug of this kind.⁵ The label for Saxenda, the daily liraglutide injection, does list headache: 13.6% on the drug against 12.6% on placebo. The placebo figure is the lesson there. About one person in eight reported a headache without the drug at all, which is why a label only counts what rises above placebo. Liraglutide and tirzepatide, label by label →

What the label does count, nearby¹

Table 1 does count three general symptoms. The label does not connect any of them to headache; they are shown here because they are what it records instead.

The fatigue row pools asthenia, fatigue, lethargy and malaise; the hypotension row pools decreased blood pressure, hypotension and orthostatic hypotension. Of low blood pressure the label says it was more frequent in people on blood pressure medicines and “also occurred in association with gastrointestinal adverse events and dehydration.” The fatigue figures are unpacked in does tirzepatide make you tired, and dehydration in tirzepatide and diarrhea.

The Mounjaro label is the same⁴

Mounjaro is the same molecule, approved for type 2 diabetes and tested in different trials. Its prescribing information, revision 8/2026, does not contain the word either: not in its Table 1 of reactions in 5% or more of patients, not in its gastrointestinal or other adverse reaction paragraphs, and not in its postmarketing list. Its Medication Guide mentions headache only among the signs of low blood sugar, exactly as Zepbound’s does. Mounjaro and Zepbound compared →

What none of this covers

A headache has many causes, and a label cannot sort them. Whether a headache while taking tirzepatide needs attention is a question for the prescriber, not for this page. See the medical disclaimer, and the full list of reactions the label does report.