Cluster Headache Treatment with Psilocybin Mushrooms & LSD

There are recurring discussions of the use of psychedelics, most often psilocybin and LSD, in the underground and personal treatment of migraines and cluster headaches. Cluster headaches (also called Suicide Headaches) are a specific variety of extreme, recurring headaches and are classified with migraines. A good overview of Cluster headache symptomology can be found at clusterheadache.com. Very briefly, Cluster headaches are cripplingly painful headaches which occur in clusters or periods where the sufferer experiences them at a high frequency, sometimes several per day, over the course of weeks or months, then a period of no headaches, then another cycle of pain.

Erowid has received several reports of migraine sufferers who have used low doses of LSD to treat migraines and chemicals structurally similar to LSD are commonly prescribed for migraine treatment, but more recently data has begun to accumulate that psilocybin may successfully reduce the incidence of cluster headaches for weeks or months and may also reduce the pain during an attack.

Ethan Russo wrote a comment, posted to the MAPS website in February 2000, which makes it clear that the recurring claims of relief from these disabling migrains should be scientifically investigated. An article in September 2004 in Wired discussed the cluster headache issue Long Trip for Psychedelic Drugs.

On clusterheadaches.com discussions about the use of psilocybin were initiated in 2000 by Flash, and the archives there can turn up some interesting comments. Erowid includes this set of comments in order to archive them so that they can be the basis for further research. If you have any experiences, positive or negative, with psilocybin & cluster headaches, please submit either:

• Submit a Mushrooms & Cluster Headaches Survey, or
• Submit an experience report.