About
ClusterBusters
Our History -
Strange Beginnings
In late 1998, a man posted a message on an internet
bulletin board that he suspected LSD had prevented his usual cluster headache
cycles. He had successfully experimented on himself using indole-ring
hallucinogens he posted that he planned to continue using the treatment. This
idea was met at first with much skepticism as many clusterheads (as sufferers
call affectionately themselves) had seen a hundred scams, crazy ideas, and
misguided treatments born of desperation over the years.
Yet upon
further investigation, his claims had some scientific basis: indole-ring
molecules fit well with serotonin receptors, research on LSD years ago showed
it to be a very effective treatment for migraines (a related disease). Indeed,
Albert Hoffman was looking for a treatment for migraines amongst other
conditions when he created LSD. Historically, many cultures all over the world
treated headaches with naturally occurring indole-ring hallucinogens for
centuries.
As word spread of this treatment option, others tried
psilocybin and also achieved excellent results. There was more discussion on
the boards and research done with both of these treatments. From the board a
core group of advisors and researchers emerged, to champion the cause. They
developed a web site with the ponderous title "The Treatment of Vascular
Headaches with Hallucinogenic Substances."
The experiments, discussions
and reports of the treatment went on through 2000 and 2001. The people involved
were professionals, business owners, contractors and members of their
community. Their concern using LSD and psilocybin being illegal drugs became an
issue, and some people in sensitive positions worried about livelihoods and
careers. The site was moved and Clusterbusters was
created!
ClusterBusters was incorporated and registered as an
IRS-approved 501 (c) (3) non-profit research and educational organization in
soon after, to further research into effective treatments of cluster
headache.
Soon after, the medical research community started to pay
attention to the success of these treatments, became involved in research and
started to listen to what we had to say. This led to several encouraging events
that are continuing to evolve every day.
A paper was prepared on this
treatment option:
Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD
By: R. Andrew Sewell, MD, John H. Halpern, MD and Harrison G. Pope, Jr,
MD This paper was presented at the National Headache Foundation Research
Summit in February 2006 and later published in Neurology as a Communication
brief, NEUROLOGY 2006;66:1920-1922
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Current
Projects
Clusterbusters has been featured in the newspapers around
the world, feature films and news stories have occurred over the years.
ClusterBusters now hosts annual conferences across the U.S. to further its
goals of patient education and research development. The directors of
Clusterbusters are asked to present our findings at different conferences
throughout the year.
The organization has ongoing interest in
conducting clinical trials of indole-ring compounds and has recently
participated in the research of non-hallucinogenic treatments of cluster
headache.
Through the efforts of many the future of effective treatment
of cluster headache is brighter and there is more opportunity on the
horizon. |
Cluster
Busters Inc.
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