Greetings to one and all!

Any of you good people heard of or suffered from cluster headache?If you have, I feel for you.If you havent you are fortunate.

Cluster headache is one of a group of conditions which are known as the TACs (Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias);its a properly severe headache that makes the pain of childbirth/biliary or ureteric colic/pancreatic cancer with invasion of the coeliac plexus of nerves seem trivial-although they are clearly not.It has some features in common with migraine but also has additional features which make it a distinct entity.

I have seen it a few times and its a condition you dont forget.The last case I saw presented to hospital with a 6 inch knife stuck in the eye which is where the real agony sits.I have heard of cases where the sufferer has even tried to shoot their eye out to deal with the agony which is located just behind the eye;they survived and there CT brain scan is remarkably horrific.The headache did persist.

So why am I making a post about it here?Well, it seems there is anecdotal evidence of LSD having a beneficial effect in this condition when a low dose is taken.Makes sense as LSD is an ergotamine derivative with structural similarities to methysergide and the triptans (suma/almo/riza-triptans etc)which can help during an attack.

Intranasal ketamine at a dose of 25mg also helps very dramatically but apparently most patients are very reluctant to use pharmaceutical-grade K for this due to the 'unpleasant and disconcerting' psychic effects.Pretty low dose, dontcha think?

Makes you wonder if DXM might be of use.

The only other condition which is as likely to provoke self-harm due to its unpleasantness is a thalamic infarct;the pain of this is not as acute as that of cluster headache but is virtually unresponsive to all treatments including hardcore opioids such as fentanyl and the pain-easing anticonvulsants.The majority of victims of this end up commiting suicide.

So ,good people, please do appreciate the days of health before infirmity inevitably comes to call.....

I seen a documentary a while back about LSD helping people with cluster headaches. Im sure they created a dirrivative of LSD so sufferers wouldnt get the trip. Im sure it was this documentary:

http://natgeotv.com/uk/lsd-trip-to-hell

Not sure if you can watch it there

I used to suffer from clusters from around the age of 11 to 14. When the clusters subsided they were replaced by migraines. I wish I kept a diary when I was younger, the time at which my clusters stopped is around about when I gained an interest in acid.

Since finding myself unable to obtain Sumatriptan from the out-of-hours pharmacy a couple of years ago (you have to fill in a 2-page questionnaire, interesting on a migraine come-up!) I’ve been relying on borrowing Rizatriptan from a friend or dosing with various amounts of spice. I’ve had good results from the spice, but I don’t think I have found the correct dosage level yet.

Spice seems like a really good idea if dosage level can be arrived at, the effects are so short and come on so quick. Shame you can’t really carry a pipe around with you or dose anywhere remotely public!

It's not only LSD, but also psilocybin which was already studied for those effects. Just google for "clusterbusters" and you get some interesting information.

@d*l*b: Even though I have heard how bad migraine is, I find it rather interesting. It got my attention when I discussed psychedelic patterns in paintings or like in that wonderful art of the shipibo people with a migraine patient. He told me that those patterns looked almost identical to those patterns he could see when a migraine period was just about to start. Do you experience "psychedelic" visuals just before a migraine?

My migraines have always had quite a psychedelic visual edge to them. My current migraines generally don’t even include headache at all, just visual disturbance and weird body sensations.

I don’t personally think that I have seen anything close to the visual aspect of migraine in any tools that I have worked with, although I did noticed the visuals the day after a Trazadone (not psychedelic, used to help me sleep). This has made me think again about using Trazadone, or at least a whole one again!

Migraine visual disturbance for me is quite hazy and undefined. Mostly I get blotches of colours, sometimes with turret-like outlines, that morph and slowly take over more and more of my visual field, often until I can barely really see much at all as there is so much in the way. This is accompanied by loss of sensation in my mouth and hands and a lessening of coordination.

There are some really quite crazy migraine types out there. I have had a fair few bouts of symptoms that seem to be the same as those of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, this is actually quite psychedelic, you lose understanding of your size in regard to other things around you. I have had experiences where I am going from feeling minute to very large very rapidly. Interesting effects, but all in all does not feel that nice!

As a side note– where has the conclusion come from that cluster headaches are more painful than other forms of head pain? Are there studies? I have historically been into head-butting walls for pain relief and have often thought of, but not actually got round to (largely incapacitated luckily), putting objects in my head to release the pain. Maybe I’m just a wuss...

A very close friend of mine suffers from cluster headaches that are non-responsive to just about all of the available pharmaceuticals. None of the triptans have helped him. Fiorinal (butalbital, a barbiturate, combined with caffeine and aspirin) will alleviate a headache that's already happening but it does nothing to prevent the next cluster headache from coming. In other words, it won't abort the cluster of headaches, just the current headache. DMT and small doses of psilocin do the same thing, but faster and with fewer side effects. However, larger doses of psilocin (like an eighth of P. cubensis) will abort a cluster cycle totally and keep another one from starting for about a month.

He's very thankful that shrooms exist, and I'm thankful too for his sake. Yet another reason to legalize psychedelics.

d*l*b

The conclusion that cluster headache is the worst head pain of all comes from surveys of people who have had this condition and one of the others I mentioned in the OP; subjectively it always came out on top in terms of severity.

The treatment options are divided into 2 groups, those for the acute attack and those which are prophylactic.

Acute treatments:

subcutaneous sumatriptan (the best treatment)
hi flow oxygen
occipital nerve block
prednisolone

Prophylaxis:

verapamil, a calcium channel blocker
lithium
methysergide


Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is more a part of migraines rather than the TACs; its an interesting phenomena which suggests parietal lobe dysfunction.

this may help. i have read about people using Turbina corymbosa 9one of those LSA morning glory seed species).

see here http://www.maps.org/rese..._2008_aha_lsa_poster.pdf

LSD, psilocybin (found in shrooms) and LSA (found in HBWR, morning glories, etc.) are all known to help stop cluster headaches. This is well documented in many places. It’s very likely that other similar compounds have the same effect on cluster headaches.

Before SWIM used psychedelics on a regular basis, he used to suffer from migraines at least once a week. Migraines are not cluster headaches, but after SWIM got interested in psychedelics, the occurrence of his headaches went down about 95%. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

I really wish I was more the type for recording my life. The time my clusters disappeared is so close to my initial interest in acid.

I can’t say that psychedelics have had much of a difference in the frequency of my migraines, there have been times when I haven’t worked with them much for years, and times I have worked with acid up to a couple of times a week. Migraine frequency in these times has not appeared to change in relation to this. Most of my migraine issues seem to stem from stress, food (not so much anymore, stay away from things with weird additives) and (mostly) atmospheric pressure.

In my tests on myself so far I have found spice as good (better in terms of speed of action) for aborting migraine as prescribed tryps. A girl I was seeing recently also tested spice for migraine (tbh I’m personally not sure whether she was really a migraineur, or just had bad headaches), she didn’t get it to abort but did find some relief in that it removed some pressure from her head.