Actually, there are quite a few folks here who've had good success with lithium as a preventive.  I'm sure they'll be along shortly to discuss their experience with it.

Meantime, welcome back to CH.com.  Some old familiar names you'll recognize, and many newcomers.

Best wishes,

George

I'm a lithium user and I swear by it! 31 years of CH, episodic, currently hoping to be coming to the end of a 5 month cycle that won't let go of me.

I use 1200 mg of lithium a day as my prevent. Takes a little bit of blood work at first to establish your therapeudic level as it's not so much related to your size as to how your body processes the stuff.  Takes about 10-14 days to become effective as a prevent, I do a 2 week prednisone taper during that time.

Once I'm up and running on the lithium it blocks about 70% of  my attacks, if I am strict at avoiding my triggers. For me that's alcohol, getting really hungry or massively screwing up my sleep cycles. The only side effects: You pee a LOT the first 2 weeks. Do pay attention when he tells you to increase your water intake. The slight lethargic feelng you may experience is easily overcome with a cup or two of coffee. Forget the Hollywood stereotypes of mouth breathing zombies on Lithium. If I didn't tell you I was taking it you'd never know.

Some, like Brew, found they had to combine it with Verapamil to get relief. It's often called the CH cocktail used for the really tough cases.

I hope and pray lithium gives you at least the same level of relief I've experienced.

Joe

Guiseppi

Thank you very much for your description....makes me feel a lot better!

Hope I have the luck you've had. 

Title:  Double Blind Comparison of Lithium and Verapamil in Cluster Headache Prophylaxis 
Author: Bussone G, Leone M, et al.
Date:  Posted: January 2010
Source:  Headache  30:411-417, 1990
Chronic Cluster Headache (CCH) treatment is troublesome; since there are no pain-free periods, it must be continuous. The most effective CCH prophylactic drug today is lithium carbonate but long-term use of this drug is limited by the possibility of side effects. Recently, calcium antagonists have been successfully employed to prevent migraine, and preliminary studies also indicate that verapamil in particular is an efficacious treatment for CCH. We have conducted a multicenter trial employing a double-dummy, double blind, cross-over protocol, comparing verapamil with the established efficacy of lithium carbonate, in preventing CCH attacks. BOTH LITHIUM CARBONATE AND VERAPAMIL WERE EFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING CCH BUT VERAPAMIL CAUSED FEWER SIDE EFFECTS and had a shorter latency period. We did not observe any correlation between plasma levels of the two drugs and their clinical efficacy. Both the drugs tested here may exert their effect by restoring a normal inhibitory tone to the pain modulating pathways from the trigemino-vascular system, a circuit putatively implicated in CCH.

I've tried all sorts of drugs wasted thousands of dollars on pills that didn't work and dr.s that didn't
cure me or even ease the pain. Been having them since 1985 and finally found a dr. to give me a trigger point injection in my occipital nerve (occipital nerve block). Works every time for the last 12 years never
been more than two times for treatment and the CH are gone. Last vist lasted 29 months.
Just went to him in April after 29 months of no pain and after 2 treatments I am pain free for going on 2 weeks. Just a cheaper solution to all the high dollar drugs that are being used by other sufferers.
Check out my occipital nerve block topic on med and treatments.
Good luck and God Bless.

Hey Ted,

This Newsweek article is a good introduction to the sort of alternative treatment mentioned by Brew and Shaggy:

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