The IHC 2009 14th International Headache Congress in Philadelphia was very interesting...  My hat is off to CH.com and OUCH for promoting the Cluster Headache Survey.  Dr. Todd Rozen's posters looked great under the Geisinger Medical Center banner.  Both posters gave credit to both OUCH and CH.com for attracting the 1143 participants that completed the survey.

I had the opportunity to spend nearly and hour with Dr. Rozen and listen to his explanation of the two cluster headache survey abstracts to several neurologists.  The goal now is to get these two abstracts into articles and published then work up a few more articles...  Dr. Rozen indicated the cluster headache survey has sufficient material for at least 7 articles...

Following that Dr. Rozen indicated he will be ready to start the demand valve pilot study and one other cluster headache related clinical trial...  Both clinical trials will require candidate participants from the Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey region...  I'll have more information on both clinical trials including contact data shortly.

The OUCH booth looked great! I've done a lot of trade shows over my 14 years at Booz Allen and was very impressed with the OUCH booth. It looked professional and the signage made it a standout among the 24 or so other booths many run by the big megabuck pharmaceutical firms. 

Helen and Liz had a very informative handout brochure on cluster headaches and to make a point, Liz even provided a demonstration of a live cluster headache attack she aborted with oxygen therapy...  That had more than a few neurologists in the exhibit area wagging their tongues...  Well done Liz, good on you Helen, and well done OUCH!

Another big tip of the hat goes to Bob Wold and the good folks at Clusterbusters for their $10,000 donation that made Dr. John Halpern's BOL study possible.  The 2-Bromo LSD study looks like a winner and the most promising preventative treatment of episodic and chronic cluster headaches yet…   As a non-hallucinogenic analog of LSD (No Trips), BOL appears safe and ready for further research as indicated in Dr. Halpern’s abstract. 

I had the opportunity to watch Dr. Halpern brief the study to several neurologists including one from the FDA...  Neurologists are a strange bunch and most kept a poker face while listening to his brief...  Having said that, from their body language and the kind of questions asked, it was clear the BOL study caught their attention.

If you want to download all 408 of the IHC 2009 abstracts click on the following link

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Click on Abstracts then on the link at the bottom of the page or click on the following link:

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Take care,

V/R, Batch