Ive been dealing with clusters for a number of years now. Seems that ive turned chronic in the last year. since im approaching 12 months without releif. Ive tried about everything in the past. Currently im on Batchs d3 regimen, stil hopeful just started the full regimen about a week ago. But still getting hit daily so my doc prescribed me elavil today. Also known as Amitriptyline. He said we could try it for a while if it didnt work lithium would be next choice. So im gonna give it a shot along with the Batch regimen. Just wondering if any of you all have had past experience with this drug. Or perhaps even success stories would be welcome. Any advice?

It's a fairly old-school treatment, certainly not first-line treatment.  I've been on it before with limited effect.

As I understand, the go-to "chronic cocktail" is Verapamil and Lithium.

Hi and welcome

Batch's D3 regime can for some people get quick results but for others it takes a bit longer, depending most likely on how d3 deficient you are. But the results are well, well worth waiting for as it has helped a lot of people.

When I first got diagnosed with CH I was initially given Nortripyline which is very much like Amitriptyline. It did help cut down the number of CHs that I was having reasonably well, but after a few months I migrated to using verapamil which for me worked a lot better as a preventive.

If you've used verapamil before without any success it is possible that you were on too low a dose. Most people need 360-480mg a day and some as much as 1000mg a day, which is a lot higher than what many doctors expect. It also takes about 10 days for a dose change to be effective, so some people give up before it gets chance to take effect.

There are several people here who have used lithium with good results, although do make sure that if using it that you are monitored with regular tests as otherwise it can cause issues as we saw with a regular poster here ending up in hospital when not monitored.

There is also a "chronic's cocktail" with a combination of verapamil and lithium which can work when each by itself doesn't.

Tried elavil.  Didn't touch my clusters but sure made me drowsey!

djphrenzy wrote on Feb 14^th, 2013 at 10:28pm:

It's a fairly old-school treatment, certainly not first-line treatment.  I've been on it before with limited effect. As I understand, the go-to "chronic cocktail" is Verapamil and Lithium.

That's my cocktail, along with amitriptyline. Has it helped? Don't know. Something is going for me though, since after being chronic for many years, I've been pretty much pf since last summer. Give it a try, what the heck? blessings. lance