Hello all. I am not a new member. I was last on the board in 2010 when I was having a particularly violent battle with "the beast" I was finally able to get it under control with O2 therapy and a daily preventative called amitryptaline.Myn condition is episodic with varying lengths of time between cycles. Anywhere from two months to this last break which lasted more than three years . After I had conquered (or so I thought) the beast the last time I went on to do many exciting thing in life. I completed my education to the bachelors level, got married, had my first child, and moved to a great new city 7 hours away from home, Started a great new band that continues to this day(I am a lifelong musician) and generally got on with living life. Once I got here I was still taking my daily preventative and doing well. The only problem I had was that the preventative I was taking(amitryptaline 50mgs at first then down to 25mgs) had a psychoactive effect on my mental state that I wasn't to fond of (irritability loss of concentration and when I would take it at night I would sleep to the point that my wife couldn't wake me sometimes). So after being free of the beast for almost three years I stopped taking the preventative and hoped for the best. All was well up until about 4 weeks ago when during a normal work day I felt the unmistakable twinge behind my right eye. At first I dismissed it as I was only experiencing mild "shadows" I hoped it would not progress any further. ell my hopes were dashed three weeks ago when I was hit with a full blown attack while at work. The last horrific round with the beast taught me a few things. One of which was stock up on abortive. When I moved to the city where I currently live I found an excellent doctor who was familiar with cluster headaches and had nor problem prescibing Imitrex and the preventative for me. So every so often I would fill the script "just in case". I keep some in each vehicle I own and some in the bottom of the back pack I carry around. Sooo starting about three weeks ago I am once again "dancing with the devil" so to speak. It took me this long to get my first delivery of O2. And of course I started my preventative again right away but it has not started working as of yet. So it has been multiple injections of Imitrex every day for three weeks. Yes I am suffering not only from clusters but now the terrible rebounds from too much Imitrex. I will start using the oxygen tonight and hope for the best. I'm glad this site is still here and available for people like me.

Consider a trial of any abortive not in the Imitrex family and see what happens.

I like this one because it's rapid acting, doesn't take multiple uses before it starts being effective and, within 1-3 uses, you'll know whether it's effective for you.
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Headache 2001 Sep;41(8):813-6 

Olanzapine as an Abortive Agent for Cluster Headache.


Rozen TD.
Department of Neurology, Jefferson Headache Center/Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate olanzapine as a cluster headache abortive agent in an open-label trial. BACKGROUND: Cluster headache is the most painful headache syndrome known. There are very few recognized abortive therapies for cluster headache and fewer for patients who have contraindications to vasoconstrictive drugs. METHODS: Olanzapine was given as an abortive agent to five patients with cluster headache in an open-label trial. THE INITIAL OLANZAPINE DOSE WAS 5 MG, AND THE DOSE WAS INCREASED TO 10 MG IF THERE WAS NO PAIN RELIEF. THE DOSAGE WAS DECREASED TO 2.5 MG IF THE 5-MG DOSE WAS EFFECTIVE BUT CAUSED ADVERSE EFFECTS. To be included in the study, each patient had to treat at least two attacks with either an effective dose or the highest tolerated dose. RESULTS: Five patients completed the investigation (four men, one woman; four with chronic cluster, one with episodic cluster). Olanzapine reduced cluster pain by at least 80% in four of five patients, and TWO PATIENTS BECAME HEADACHE-FREE AFTER TAKING THE DRUG. Olanzapine typically alleviated pain within 20 minutes after oral dosing and treatment response was consistent across multiple treated attacks. The only adverse event was sleepiness. CONCLUSIONS: Olanzapine appears to be a good abortive agent for cluster headache. IT ALLEVIATES PAIN QUICKLY AND HAS A CONSISTENT RESPONSE ACROSS MULTIPLE TREATED ATTACKS. IT APPEARS TO WORK IN BOTH EPISODIC AND CHRONIC CLUSTER HEADACHE.

PMID 11576207 PubMed

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Olanzapine has a brand name of "Zyprexa" and is a antipsychotic. Don't be put off by this primary usage. Several of the drugs used to treat CH are cross over applications, that is, drugs approved by the FDA for one purpose which are found to be effective with unrelated conditions--BJ.