Posted by Dr. Gary A. Mellick on August 03, 1998 at 23:03:42:
In Reply to: Re: Ritalin (methylphenidate) for the Treatment of Cluster Headaches posted by irene on August 01, 1998 at 16:48:05:
DR. LARRY MELLICK, the Augusta, Georgia co-author of the Ritalin manuscript, recently telephoned me and related the following story.
Another neurologist, who after he had seen the Ritalin/cluster headache article, prescribed Ritalin for is son-in-law who was anticipating his next cluster cycle.
At the onset of the first headache, the son-in-law immediately took 10 mg of Ritalin (i.e., methylphenidate) and the headache evaporated almost before it started.
Since then, the patient has had two more cluster headaches that he promptly aborted with Ritalin after they had begun.
The neurologist reports that his son-in-law is elated over this newly discovered cluster headache treatment!
Interestingly, an anesthesiologist in the same town, prescribed Ritalin to a female patient with intractable migraines and she too obtained rapid headache relief.
These success stories of other patients are hopefully of some encouragement to everyone of you who suffers from cluster headaches.