I switched to oxcarbazeapine from verapamil in November as my preventative, but now my headaches are back with severe facial pain that is almost as bad as the low pain headaches.

My neurologist mentioned gabapentin. Anyone tried this?

Neither med had any useful effect on me. In fact, none of the antiepileptics did anything for me. Gaba works wonders for fibromyalgia and perhaps others have had better results, but I was up to 1200mg/day with it and while it did make the world soft and fuzzy, the hits just came rolling on. O2 is the abortive of choice for me, and verapamil+lithium for a preventative. Your results may be better than mine. Good luck, and God bless. lance

Just finished wading thru a 26-pg review of the major meds for Cluster <gasp!>

Gaba: no good studies to give any useful conclusions re. effectiveness.

Consider printing the PDF file, below, and use it as a tool to discuss your options with the doc.

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I'm on gaba now, though my neurologist is using it for my co-morbid migraines and chronic insomnia. It hasn't helped the migraines much, but like Lance, I find it can make the world soft and fuzzy. It's had a modest effect on my sleep so far, which I find encouraging.

I started it two nights ago. 300 mg once per night for five days, then twice per day. If that doesn't work, three times a day.
It helps me get to sleep and stay asleep which is nice. My face still hurts like mad, but I haven't had a headache sense yesterday.

Many years ago, when doctors had fewer tools available - I tried Gabapentin (Neurontin) with zero success. At one point, I had gradually ramped up to the maxi dosage at 4000 mg per day and stayed there for 3 weeks. I had no side effects of any kind, and zero impact on my CH's which are chronic and were raging at their peak in those days. (Around 1998-1999)

I have not heard of any CH experienced doctors even thinking about suggesting it these days - I'm kind of surprised.  Of course, YMMV.........

Marc