Where did you hear about this therapy?

No.  Never heard of this particular approach.

We had a chronic here a few years ago who had been through several rounds of histamine desensitization therapy.  It was an in-patient procedure, and very expensive, if I recall correctly.  (In the neighborhood of $20,000 per round of therapy.)  Results were very mixed, with relief lasting up to two weeks.  Not particularly impressive, as I recall.

Best,

George

The thing is, I DO respond to Histamine Desensitization (sorry it doesn't work for all), and some are correct in saying it doesn't last too long. I never know how long it'll last. 2 weeks to 2-3 months ... who knows? But it DOES stop the attacks for awhile. And YES, It IS VERY COSTLY, more like $25 - $30K a round. The idea is that since I DO respond to IV Histamine, MAYBE I'll respond to Histamine SubQ injections at home that would be much less costly and time consuming than desensitization therapy. (Costing about $65 a MONTH)

There HAS BEEN some studies done with Histamine SubQ (I Just learned today). However, these studies were NOT done to treat clusters and none were done in the US. Of these 2 studies I found, only one was for headache (and I will scan both studies for you all within the next 24-48 hours and post). These 2 studies are called:

(1) "Subcutaneous Histamine versus Topiramate in Migraine Prophylaxis: A Double-Blind Study"

European Neurology (Eur Neurol 2008;59;237-242) (DOI: 10.1159/000115637) Recieved May 16, 2007 - Accepted August 31, 2007 - Published Online  February 8, 2008

*This study I have printed out is 7 pages long and has references and several data tables. I will post this as soon as I can. I would like to say that the data tables show that Histamine SubQ did just as well or better than Topiramate and I'd also like to quote this: "...During the study, headache symptoms improved in both the histamine and topiramate groups, and this was evident within the first month after initiation of treatment." Further down it reads, and I quote,"...Taking into account that the efficacy of medications often become apparent while clinical practice is being carried out [30], the results obtained in this and in previous placebo-controlled studies [17] show that histamine is a safe drug with therapeutic potential in migraine prophylaxis, exercising specific mechanisms on pathophysiological processes involved in this disease."
_______________________________________________

Study (2) "Outpatient treatment with subcutaneous histamine in combination with interleukin-2 and interferon-a in patients with metastitic renal cell carcinoma: results of an open single-armed multicentre phase II study"

*I'm tired of typing already ... but I do want to note that within the name of this 2nd study, the "a" in "interferon-a" is of a special font or character that I cannot duplicate .... it just looks like an "a" though. Weather than makes a darn bit of difference or what it even means, I have no idea.

The basic reasons I obtained these 2 printouts is for dosage information ... to see what size doses they were 'safely' using. It looks like the first study says 1 - 10 ng twice a week of histamine versus 100 mg daily of topiramate. (BTW, I've heard of a 'gram', a 'mg', and a 'mcg', but what is a 'ng' ?? SUPER SMALL DOSE I'M THINKING)   

MORE TO COME WHEN I POST THESE REPORTS ...

Best Wishes To You All   

I couldn't upload This file because of it's size, a PDF file that is 5.31 MB. I uploaded it to a website and here is a link to the first file. This may be the only file I upload unless some of you really want to see the other file. Thanks!

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Imitrex4Breakfast

Interesting subject. I like it.

About an hour ago, I injected my first shotof Histamine - 10ng SubQ. It did not induce a cluster attack and only caused mild burning at the site of injection. Hoping it prevents cluster attacks. I'll keep you updated.

Has the histamine treatment begun working?

Thanks for "taking one for the team" and trying this out.  More info is always good, and I know we all appreciate it.  Hoping you find something that works soon!