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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 5,795
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 Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers
#8481946 - 06/04/08 12:14 AM (3 months, 1 day ago) |
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Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers
June 4, 2008 - Sun-News
 Anita Wiseman knows pain. She's given birth and endured a brain aneurism. None of these, she says, comes close to a cluster headache.
"I was always viewed as a drama queen, like I couldn't handle pain. It's just a headache, that's what a lot of people thought," says Wiseman, a substitute teacher from Los Lunas. "Then I had a brain hemorrhage. That was a whole different kind of pain, but I handled it. I don't think I ever cried when the aneurism burst. But a cluster headache can have me rolling on the floor in tears."
Cluster headaches, or, "suicide headaches,' as they're nicknamed due to treatment resistant sufferers who have killed themselves, are a little understood neurological disorder, cropping up in a diverse cross section of the population. No clear pattern along genetic lines is evident as yet, and there are currently few potent, low side-effect pharmaceutical treatment options.
The pain has been described as, "Taking a blunt stick and slowly pushing it through your eye, then continuing to do that for one or two hours."
"I guarantee you that you have friends and co-workers with cluster headaches, you just don't know about it," says Dr. Andrew Sewell, a psychiatrist and neurologist who worked extensively with cluster headache suffers while on a three-year research fellowship at Harvard. "It's as common as muscular dystrophy; a quarter as common as multiple sclerosis."
In the world of neurological disorders, clusters are by far the most painful according to Sewell. They exceed the mental anguish imparted by migraines by orders of magnitude, and their nickname is not a glib overstatement. Not even the physical pain of amputation is comparable.
"[Migraines] are totally unrelated, except inasmuch as they're both one-sided pains in the head," says Sewell. "Migraine is associated with nausea and light sensitivity; CH with runny nose, droopy eyelid, tearing. Migraine goes away with sleep; CH tends to come on with sleep. People with migraines have to lie still in a dark room; people with cluster headache feel compelled to pace around, rock, and bang their heads against things."
In 2004, after reading numerous accounts testifying as to their ability to send cluster headaches into complete remission at low, regular, non-escalating doses, Wiseman tried psilocybin mushrooms for the first time. In the United States psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DMT, and virtually every other entheogen are Schedule 1 substances with no recognized medical use.
But Wiseman says that the psilocybin mushrooms not only worked, they worked better than any prescription or non-prescription remedy she'd tried: The first time she took the psilocybin the headaches went away, completely, for three days.
Then, a month of relief without taking anything other than psilocybin. She tested herself in that time period, taking the mushrooms only when she felt the headaches coming on. By the end of the month, she was able to take psilocybin once every 60 to 90 days, experiencing complete remission without having to elevate the dose.
Most cluster headache sufferers only require sub-hallucinogenic doses to achieve remission. Wiseman's case was consistent with this finding, in that every time she's taken psilocybin it's been at sub-hallucinogenic levels, and, at most, "makes the colors on the Home and Garden channel very pretty."
"I had little to no quality of life prior to that," Wiseman says. "I was afraid to do things. I wasn't able to work. We couldn't go on vacations. Whenever I went to a soccer tournament for my kids, I had to run to the car or go hide because I was in pain. I just wished we could go home. How awful is that?"
Anita's experience and turnaround on hallucinogens isn't unusual in CH circles. It's estimated by the Clusterbusters organization that 80 percent of the cluster headache sufferers who try psychedelics find near-complete relief and the attendant improved quality of life.
Though Dr. Sewell — who conducted the first comprehensive case series on cluster headache suffers who use hallucinogens therapeutically — and other researchers don't know why psilocybin, LSD, and other entheogens work, their preliminary research suggests that some people experience remarkable therapeutic effects, if illegally.
There is a caveat, says Sewell, and that is that there have been no randomized placebo-controlled trials. While Sewell is in the final stages of a large study looking into the efficiency of LSA — a natural LSD analogue found in Morning Glory and Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds — against cluster headaches, it's an independent effort.
"It's hard to imagine a company interested in marketing a drug that's long out of patent and only has to be taken once every three or four months," says Dr. Sewell.
"Its not something pharmaceuticals are interested in because people can grow their own medicine," says Bob Wold, a 54-year-old carpenter and business owner who's suffered from cluster headaches for 27 years. "So we aren't going to see any research dollars coming out of that industry."
Wold is the founder of the Clusterbusters organization and www.clusterbusters.com website, which for the last eight years has been dedicated to pursuing medical research that documents the efficacy of psychedelics against cluster headaches.
The website is a comprehensive reference of treatment options for cluster headach sufferers, and includes cautionary notes and medical considerations for those considering using hallucinogens for relief.
While funding for the disorder is still highly limited, Wold hopes to see good research come with the assistance of his organization.
"You can get a prescription for cocaine in the United States. Heroin is still used in parts of the UK for treating pain. We are not looking to legalize drugs," says Wold. "What we're looking for, hopefully, is research that proves this works. Then we want to push the medical community to allow this to become a prescription medication, just like anything else. That's our goal."
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 skateordont
I'm just a rockn roll clown
Registered: 12/06/07
Posts: 112
Loc: Victoria, BC
Last seen: 5 days, 11 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: veggie]
#8482159 - 06/04/08 01:46 AM (3 months, 1 day ago) |
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It's not just cluster headaches. Migraines too.
I used to have migraine attacks (I have stated this many times under this and previous screen names) that ruined my way of life.
From an employer/teacher's point of view, having to take between 3-14 days off a month (from school, and later work) for a "headache" sounds like a bad excuse at best, but it took chunks of time out of my life. I was hospitalized for 4 of the last 5 days of one of my best vacations with a migraine, which I had a minor stroke from. I wasn't someone who could be counted on to be at the test, help you move, play at my football games, show up to the jobsite, or any other specific plans.
After doing mushrooms once (for recreational purposes, long before I ever found out they helped migraine/cluster headache attacks) I experienced no migraines for a year. For 8 years I had multiple, monthly, and then none.
Theoretically, they cannot be a schedule 1 drug, as they have a VERY valid medicinal purpose. I have been on Zomig, ergotamine (forget the brand) and a couple others. Nothing compared to the relief of mushrooms, and the side effects weren't comparable. Zomig made me feel like I had the flu (although still better than a migraine, I guess) and mushrooms gave me 6 hour's of "Whoa man, you can't like, own a vegetable lasagna, man... Vegetable lasagna belongs to everyone, maannnn...".
How can I help make this fact known to the medical community?
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JK!
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astronaut
manual labor advocate
Registered: 09/11/07
Posts: 556
Loc: Oregon
Last seen: 9 minutes, 56 seconds
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: skateordont]
#8482166 - 06/04/08 01:49 AM (3 months, 1 day ago) |
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yeah, shrooms / acid cured my migraine headaches. i used to get them monthly, weekly, sometimes even daily for years on end... after my first shroom trip, from one day to the next they were permanently over.
what's interesting is that one symptom that I used to get before migraines, phantosmia, still happens. having read that migraines cause brain damage, I am worried that that damage may still be occurring. in any case, at least I don't need to miss dozens of classes every term any more.
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In another Time's Forgotten Space, your Eyes looked through your Mother's Face.
Wildflower Seed on the Sand and Stone, may the Four Winds blow you Safely Home!
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 6,009
Loc: Americas
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: veggie]
#8482307 - 06/04/08 03:13 AM (3 months, 1 day ago) |
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... more from the no shit desk...
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John Smith
Solo Voyager
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 487
Last seen: 2 months, 25 days
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: veggie]
#8483168 - 06/04/08 10:56 AM (3 months, 1 day ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said:
Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers
June 4, 2008 - Sun-News
In the United States psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DMT, and virtually every other entheogen are Schedule 1 substances with no recognized medical use.
oh man, what a pleasant surprise to see the term entheogen used instead of hallucinogen.
Quote:
There is a caveat, says Sewell, and that is that there have been no randomized placebo-controlled trials. While Sewell is in the final stages of a large study looking into the efficiency of LSA — a natural LSD analogue found in Morning Glory and Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds — against cluster headaches, it's an independent effort.
"It's hard to imagine a company interested in marketing a drug that's long out of patent and only has to be taken once every three or four months," says Dr. Sewell.
"Its not something pharmaceuticals are interested in because people can grow their own medicine," says Bob Wold, a 54-year-old carpenter and business owner who's suffered from cluster headaches for 27 years. "So we aren't going to see any research dollars coming out of that industry."
Hear, hear. The truth about pharms. Its not about curing you, its about making money.
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I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
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MonkeyRacket
Certified Noob
Registered: 05/25/08
Posts: 104
Loc: Proxima Centauri
Last seen: 23 days, 12 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: John Smith]
#8483243 - 06/04/08 11:19 AM (3 months, 1 day ago) |
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Great article!
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tripleclick
circle trip
Registered: 05/06/07
Posts: 342
Loc: Tanelorn
Last seen: 1 day, 5 minutes
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: veggie]
#8483733 - 06/04/08 02:14 PM (3 months, 23 hours ago) |
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Quote:
Anita's experience and turnaround on hallucinogens isn't unusual in CH circles. It's estimated by the Clusterbusters organization that 80 percent of the cluster headache sufferers who try psychedelics find near-complete relief and the attendant improved quality of life.
cluster headaches: the new gateway drug?
great article, thanks!
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sunspots cast a glare in my eyes
sometimes I forget I'm alive
I feel it coming and I've gotta get out of its way
I hear it calling and I come cause I can't disobey
I should not listen and I shouldn't believe but I do
yes I do
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Irieforester
Head to toe inH2O
Registered: 03/10/08
Posts: 293
Loc: That state seperating fro...
Last seen: 2 days, 1 hour
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: tripleclick]
#8483765 - 06/04/08 02:22 PM (3 months, 23 hours ago) |
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Quote:
"Its not something pharmaceuticals are interested in because people can grow their own medicine,"
Big Pharm: Helping Keep You Sick Since 1843!
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I am still and forever learning
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1dude1
The DivineMaster ofBubbles
Registered: 06/04/07
Posts: 72
Loc: Colo-fuckin-rado
Last seen: 5 days, 23 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: Irieforester]
#8484746 - 06/04/08 06:43 PM (3 months, 19 hours ago) |
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on a completely different drug and topic now i just discovered after taking a month break of smoking, that during that month i became sick about 4 times and whenever i smoke i only get sick <1 time a year. so could this also be a medical benefit of marijuana. but yeah i know it's off the shrooms topic, don't get me wrong i love shrooms, and now their helpful for people with a life threatening headache, Their the best drug in the world. great read i liked hearing about medical benefits of drugs our government has declared have no significance to our health. but after looking at just personal experiences, mine and other peoples, i feel that our government is always lying to us, trying to control our life, and then i ask the question if i didn't break the law would i really be free? am i really free in this government, or am i really a slave to this fake reality that has been set up around us in order to keep us working and having these fake perceptions of freedom just to get our money and send children to war?
the people that declare war should go to war not the innocent people that live in a society where corruption keeps you safe and innocence dangers your life.
yeah Great article,
Go Shrooms
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I'm too sober to handle this!
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Coaster
ChemicalResearcher
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 11,446
Loc: La La Land
Last seen: 26 minutes, 31 seconds
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: 1dude1]
#8484764 - 06/04/08 06:48 PM (3 months, 19 hours ago) |
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ya i smoke everyday and i cant remeber the last time i was sick
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badchad
Stranger
Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 2,487
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: veggie]
#8484901 - 06/04/08 07:15 PM (3 months, 18 hours ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said:
There is a caveat, says Sewell, and that is that there have been no randomized placebo-controlled trials.
Which is why the evidence is entirely anecdotal (although the hypothesis for efficacy is sound). Expectancy and placebo effects play a huge role in human pharmacology.
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Psuper
~Psuper Pixie~
Registered: 02/12/08
Posts: 743
Last seen: 48 minutes, 39 seconds
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: badchad]
#8484943 - 06/04/08 07:22 PM (3 months, 18 hours ago) |
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Really interesting...thanks to those who shared their personal stories. ~Pixie~
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i really, really like mushrooms.
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Invisible_Woe
CollectingIntellects AndExhaling SolarSystems
Registered: 05/25/07
Posts: 330
Loc: Standing At The Corner Of...
Last seen: 1 day, 15 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: Coaster]
#8485920 - 06/04/08 10:51 PM (3 months, 15 hours ago) |
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Quote:
Coaster said:
ya i smoke everyday and i cant remeber the last time i was sick
my 3 roommates all got sick with the same thing and they dont smoke, but i didn't get sick either nor have i gotten anything more than a runny nose for the past 2 years at least.
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The world is like a ride at an amusement park and when you choose to go on it you think it's real, because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud. And it's fun for a while Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: Is this real? Or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered and they come back to us and they say Hey! Don't worry don't be afraid ever because this is just a ride. And we kill those people.Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! Look at my furrows of worry look at my big bank account and my family. This has to be real.
www.zeitgeistmovie.com
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04281969
Hobbyist
Registered: 08/09/06
Posts: 596
Last seen: 19 days, 17 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: Invisible_Woe]
#8566028 - 06/26/08 10:01 AM (2 months, 10 days ago) |
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I was a constant weed smoker, if I ever got a slight headache (which happened maybe once every other year), I'd take an aspirin and it was gone. I quit smoking about a half year ago, and I'm not sure if there's any connection, but I've gotten what seems to be my first "cluster headache". Well, I'm not sure about the technical classification, but if a hot poker through the eye every day for a week is a cluster headache, then that's it.
Aspirin, ibuprofin, acetaminofunny joke don't help. I tried one shroom and another cap, and it's dulled it a bit. It isn't gone, but it's diminished to the same degree that I feel the effects of the shrooms. I have to go in to work later, so I didn't want to have a blow-out trip session this morning, but I will try more this weekend if I'm still having pain. This sucks.
UPDATE: At T+2:00, the pain started fading even further, and it went away with the buzz. Very cool. We'll see if it lasts.
Edited by 04281969 (06/26/08 01:33 PM)
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04281969
Hobbyist
Registered: 08/09/06
Posts: 596
Last seen: 19 days, 17 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: 04281969]
#8577358 - 06/29/08 01:28 PM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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Headaches were less intense the next day, but started coming back.
One thing worth mention is that after the mushrooms it seems to have changed location from in my left eye to the crown of my head and base of my skull. Still only on the left side of my head, though.
I tried 400mg mescaline citrate on the third day after the shrooms, but that seems less helpful. Doesn't seem to do a whole lot to the headache, but I feel really good otherwise. Some mescaline and an Aleve had me coasting through the grocery store...
Edited by 04281969 (06/29/08 02:01 PM)
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04281969
Hobbyist
Registered: 08/09/06
Posts: 596
Last seen: 19 days, 17 hours
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Re: Low-dose psilocybin brings relief to cluster-headache suffers [Re: 04281969]
#8581644 - 06/30/08 08:32 PM (2 months, 5 days ago) |
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One gram of mushrooms the day after the mescaline knocked the headache right out! I'm hoping it's gone for good this time. I like them and everything, but I really don't want to eat mushrooms every day.
I guess they're right when they say that it takes a few times to be effective if the headache cycle is established. I shouldn't have let it go for a week.
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