Nathaniel Schuster, MD

Nathaniel Schuster, MD, is a board-certified neurologist and pain and headache specialist. He sees people with all types of chronic pain, with a special focus on spine pain and headache.

Dr. Schuster is a Pain and Headache Neurologist at the UC San Diego Center for Pain Medicine, where he serves as Associate Clinic Director. He was principal investigator on the first placebo-controlled study of vaporized cannabis for acute migraine and is currently launching an NFL-funded randomized controlled trial studying treatments of persistent post-traumatic headache in elite athletes. He speaks widely at pain, headache, and neurology conferences. He serves on the board of directors of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, as the Vice Chair of the Guidelines Committee for the International Pain and Spine Intervention Society, and Senior Vice President of the World Headache Society. He was 1 of 32 speakers at the 2022 and 2025 Migraine World Summits and recipient of the Migraine Research Foundation’s 2018 Impact Award research grant. He is section editor for the Neuropathic Pain section and founding co-section editor for the Teaching Images section for the journal Pain Medicine. He guest edited the October 2024 Pain issue of Continuum, the American Academy of Neurology’s CME publication. He was named a 2023 “Top Doctor” by San Diego Magazine and has received the 2024 Outstanding Volunteer Award from the International Pain and Spine Intervention Society and the 2025 Rollin “Mac” Gallagher Award from the American Academy of Pain Medicine.