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Psychedelic treatment of cluster headaches

Cluster headaches, cluster headaches or cluster headaches, are a rare and very painful disease affecting around 4-5,000 Norwegians. We know little about what causes it, so it is difficult to treat. There are effective emergency medicine available today, but the incidence of seizures in patients is often frequent and the treatments impractical, such as injections or inhalation from an oxygen tank. So preventative medicine is what is most relevant.

Psychedelics certainly work for some

There is one poorly controlled study with self-reported results, and many stories which indicates that psilocybin, LSD and LSA can have very good preventative effect against this disorder for some. The latter is a natural psychedelic tryptamine similar to LSD and found in some plants. The answers are reported afterwards, which means that one must expect the results to be exaggerated, but in return they have managed to gather almost 500 respondents. And it indicates that it works for some people anyway.

Also good effect without trip

There is also a lot of evidence that psychedelics can have a good effect on cluster headaches, even in small doses under noticeable psychoactive effects. A small study done at Harvard McClean Hospital in 2006 indicated that well over half of those who took smaller doses of psilocybin or LSD experienced a marked improvement in symptoms. Both the attacks are interrupted, but also the preventive effect.

In addition, there is a substance called 2-bromo-LSD (or BOL-148), which is a derivative of LSD and which does not produce psychedelic effect. However, there are indications that it may have a good effect, for example i this (non-randomized) study in Germany. Recently, the FDA approved a new preventative medicine (Emgality) in the United States that has shown good results for migraines and which many had hopes for, but unfortunately it has not shown good results for cluster headaches.

More information about psychedelic therapy?

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