Dr. Lee Kudrow was the Dr. who diagnosed and treated me back in 1987.   He was wonderful and yes, of course he treats patients with standard meds and 02.  I certainly wouldn't have expected him to suggest shrooms or seeds.  His nephew or is it his son has an office very near you in Venice.

To answer your questions on where to get the seeds.  iamshaman.com    They are legal to buy and very inexpensive.

If you read around this site for any length of time you will get the distinct feeling that we are all family here, because we are.  We have yearly conventions and other get-togethers and pretty much keep tabs on each others life in general.  We support and defend each other also. Bob Johnson is not only a sufferer but has such an immense shere of knowledge of CH that he helps newcomers with each and every day.  This hopefully explains the don't F with Bobcomment. 

Pretty safe to safe that 2 ml of Ketamine 2 times/day is NOT working for me.  In fact, today has been the worst day I have had in a long time.

In the case reports from Dr. Krusz "0.4mg/kg of ketamine was infused over 90-120 minutes" - intravenously. For a person's body weight of 80kg the corresponding intravenous ketamine dose would be 0.4mg/kg x 80kg  = 32mg.

   

On clusterbusters we've started a thread on Ketamine and a lot of interesting info has come out, felt like we should be posting this here too.   With all the bickering on this thread though, I really wanted to just start a new one.  But... I think this thread also has important info that has nothing to do with Ketamine.  The info we have found on Ketamine seems to show this may be a very viable treatment for clusters and may even be able to point us in the right direction as far as why these clusters are happening.  Over and over again people responded to this original post pretty negatively, telling the poster that it wouldn't work, telling him "not to fuck with people"

All I read was someone trying to talk about a therapy that a lot people had not heard of... I'm not trying to be a jerk and I'm NOT trying to rile people back up.  I think it's important to remember that ALL THE OPTIONS THAT WE HAVE SUCK.  I applaud the courageous individuals who are willing to "take one for the team" and try something new.

As far as Ketamine, I'm going to copy some stuff from our clusterbusters page...

Ketamine
May 31st, 2011 at 9:32am      

Something that I'm amazed hasn't been talked about much....There is 1 post on our sister site, but it seems mostly just like people arguing and not many facts.  I have not had much experience with Ketamine, medicinal or recreational.  In another post I talked about how John C. Lilly managed to get rid of his migraines while on large doses of ketamine inside a sensory deprivation tank (something he actually invented--the more I read about this guy the more amazed I am)  It took a couple tries (each time taking more Ketamine) but eventually he was able to visualize his migraine and fling it off into space, never to return.  Whoa.........Here's more info on him 

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Now, I'm not advocating this type of therapy (sounds like he almost drowned more than once)  but it got me thinking and researching Ketamine and I've been amazed at what I found.  Most research has been into migraines, but has had damn good success

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or .

Eventually I found a trial with clusters, even if it was only 4 people

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or .

The whole idea makes so much sense to me it's ridiculous.  Ketamine seems like it ends up blocking glutamate toxicity in the brain, something I researched a lot when I was having seizures.  Glutamate is an excitatory amino acid sometimes refered to as an excitotoxin.  Too much in your brain and you will eventually have a seizure, before that it'll cause a host of problems that western medicine hasn't even begun to identify....And I would not be surprised at all to find clusters one of them.  The thing that really amazes me is that it seems like it has an almost "busting" effect--people are getting relief for months after the initial therapy.  I am on the hunt for an adventurous doctor!  Anybody have any experiences or thoughts with this?

-Ricardo


Re: Ketamine
Reply #5 - Jun 11th, 2011 at 12:23pm      

I was just reading through an article (Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or ) on chronic pain and Ketamine and found this in the comments section--

Robert. : 2010-11-07 10:37:04
I've been using Ketamine for 10 years to abort my Cluster Headaches. It is the only thing that has ever helped at all for me. I am able to abort an acute attack as well as abort an entire " Cluster Cycle "... I am lucky enough to have lived outside of the Pharma-controlled USA and have open access to the Ketamine. I wouldn't be alive if not for the Ketamine.


Re: Ketamine
Reply #15 - Aug 11th, 2011 at 2:59pm    

  Under Psiloscribe's awesome post Documents for Serious Psychonauts I found a great article on Ketamine...

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Although it does not at any time mention clusters or headaches at all, something that really grabbed my attention is that it was written by R. Andrew Sewell.  This is same guy that has written about clusters, psilocybin and LSD and who has worked with John Halpern regarding clusters and psychedelics.  It would be amazing to be able to contact him and see if he had any thoughts on ketamine's use for clusters.  I bet he's a busy guy so it might not be a possibility....any body got any idea on how to get in touch with him?


Re: Ketamine
Reply #16 - Aug 11th, 2011 at 5:24pm    

Yep, the same Dr. Andrew Sewell.
I've just a sent him a message.   

FG


Re: Ketamine
Reply #17 - Aug 11th, 2011 at 9:06pm    

Hi Ricardo--

Yes, I am quite busy, but I'm always willing to help out the Clusterbusters. I didn't mention cluster headache in the article because at the time, there was literally no information whatsoever on the effects of ketamine on cluster headache. I was, however, about to join a ketamine research lab at Yale (the same lab that discovered ketamine's rapid-antidepressant effects ten years ago) so I thought I had better teach myself something about it.

The question of whether ketamine works for cluster attacks is important not just for you guys who are looking for some help with your attacks, but for us researchers as well. Psilocybin can't be compared with placebo in a clinical trial, because patient know in short order what they got. We have to use an "active placebo" instead--something that causes an alteration in consciousness but no clinical effect. Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins used methyphenidate (Ritalin)--but he was studying mystical experiences, and Ritalin doesn't have a reputation for causing mystical experiences. It does, however, abort cluster attacks, so that was out. Ketamine was the next logical choice--the only question was whether or not it affected cluster headache. There's a fair amount of information that it's helpful for migraine--in low doses, too, less than the psychedelic dose, but that's no guarantee that it's helpful for cluster headache, even though many migraine hand-me-downs do help. So it was an open question.

In the last year or so, however, small studies have started to appear. I'll quote from the March 2010 Headache Currents:
===============
Ketamine
Ketamine is a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that has been used as a general anesthetic and analgesic for several decades. Ketamine is thought to exert its analgesic effect via its NMDA receptor antagonistic action, an action that also inhibits the induction and maintenance of central sensitization. Its role in treating and preventing acute pain, such as postoperative pain, is better established than its potential role in preventing and treating chronic pain conditions. Nonetheless, ketamine has been studied for its use as an analgesic in several chronic pain conditions, including post-herpetic neuralgia, central dysesthesic pain after spinal cord injury, peripheral neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, phantom limb pain, temporomandibular joint pain, and trigeminal neuralgia. In small numbers of patients, subanesthetic doses of ketamine were previously shown to effectively abort migraine headaches and migraine aura, prevent spontaneous migraine attacks, and prevent nitroglycerin-induced headaches.

Ketamine for treating multiple types of headaches.
Krusz JC, Cagle J, Scott-Krusz VB.

The safety and efficacy of intravenous ketamine for the treatment of several different refractory headache disorders were evaluated in this open-label outpatient study of 247 patients. Subjects included 162 patients with refractory migraine, 11 with cluster headaches, 4 with paroxysmal hemicrania, 39 with chronic daily headaches (subtype not specified), and 31 with headaches (type not specified) and facial pain (trigeminal neuralgia or temporomandibular dysfunction). IV ketamine resulted in substantial benefits in all patient groups. Among the refractory migraine group, 93% had greater than 50% reduction in pain intensity. All cluster headache patients had complete resolution of their ongoing cluster episodes (average of 6.4 days). Four of 4 paroxysmal hemicrania patients had complete resolution of headaches (average of 7 days). Sixty-eight percent of chronic daily headache patients and 80% of patients with headache and facial pain were reported to have more than 50% improvement in their pain patterns (exact definition of improvement not provided). Side effects of ketamine infusion included a transient sense of calmness and lightheadedness, experienced by 41% of patients. No patients fell asleep, became dysphoric, or experienced hallucinations. Investigators concluded that IV ketamine is safe and effective for the outpatient treatment of several refractory headache disorders.
======
Bummer, eh? Back to the drawing board.

--Andrew


Re: Ketamine
Reply #18 - Aug 12th, 2011 at 9:24am    

Looking at Dr. Krusz's web page, I realize--I've met this guy! I ran into him in Los Angeles in 2008. He was white-haired, but very energetic and enthusiastic; talked a lot about low-dose ketamine for migraines. I asked him had he tried ketamine in any cluster patients, and at that time he had not.

Dr. Krusz runs a headache clinic in Dallas, TX. I know for a fact that there are a couple of Clusterbusters living in Dallas. Can't say who, because it's considered Protected Health Information (PHI) but *koff koff* you know who you are. How about a field trip to Dr. Krusz's ketamine clinic, guys? Send us a report.

--Andrew

That last part is the reason I posted this on here.  Any cluster sufferers living near Texas that are up for a trial that has so far shown "All cluster headache patients had complete resolution of their ongoing cluster episodes"?

-Ricardo

Seeing as how this got brought up in a recent post I thought I would give an update...  For just about the past year I have been using the Ketamine Nasal spray--50mg/ml, I go through 60 ml in a month.  It has helped me immensely.  It works quicker than an imitrex shot and seems to have less side effects.  It does give a strange "buzz" intoxication, but it doesn't last very long and unless I take large amounts of it I can still function pretty much fine.  (as opposed to how a half a trex shot makes me feel horrible all over, sedated with my hands and scalp feeling like they are on fire)  I still take Imitrex, but only when I'm getting hit really hard, am out of Ketamine, or I'm about to go to sleep. (Sometimes the Ketamine can keep me awake)  Before this I was taking as much Imitrex as my doc would let me and a pretty heavy amount of hydrocodone.  Might be worth talking to your Neuro about if you are having trouble controlling your clusters.

-Ricardo

Dr McGeeney @ BU is using ketamine with several patients. I think a slow IV and a spray for a boost. It's showing some promise yet very dangerous and is a major drug!!!
Wouldn't be my choice but he's one awesome doc and killer advocate