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http://www.nature.com/news/2006/0609.../060911-5.html
I think I have a post-traumatic stress headache 
We need to study the effect of powerful hallucinogens such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and psilocybin, the active ingredient in 'magic' mushrooms, on debilitating cluster headaches, researchers say.
Their study, which points towards the effectiveness of these drugs, is published in the journal Neurology1. It is the first formal look at reports of LSD's therapeutic benefits in nearly 40 years, says Andrew Sewell of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. ........
About five years ago, users of Internet message boards began swapping stories about chronic sufferers who gained two- to six-month periods of complete remission after one or two sub-hallucinogenic doses of LSD or psilocybin.
Sewell and John Halpern, both of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center, decided to investigate. They interviewed 53 cluster-headache sufferers around the world who had self-administered psychedelics in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms. Medical records were checked to verify that they did indeed suffer from cluster headaches.
Acid test
Their results are startling: the majority (85%) of psilocybin users report that it aborted attacks — better than oxygen, which stopped attacks for 52% of the patients surveyed. LSD and psilocybin were both better at preventing future attacks than conventional medicines.
.........
The study was partly funded by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), a non-profit alliance of scientists and campaigners that funds research into the therapeutic benefits of psychoactive drugs and lobbies for changes in US law (!!!!).
The California-based MAPS is also helping to fund a study into the effects of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) on post-traumatic stress disorder. And a MAPS-funded study into psilocybin as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder has been completed at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Halpern is separately leading another study on the effects of MDMA on end-stage cancer anxiety.
Halpern and Sewell are now pushing for clinical trials of LSD and psilocybin. "We owe it to patients to determine whether this treatment works," says Sewell. "And we owe it to neurologists to provide them with accurate information so that they can effectively counsel patients."
Their study, which points towards the effectiveness of these drugs, is published in the journal Neurology1. It is the first formal look at reports of LSD's therapeutic benefits in nearly 40 years, says Andrew Sewell of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. ........
About five years ago, users of Internet message boards began swapping stories about chronic sufferers who gained two- to six-month periods of complete remission after one or two sub-hallucinogenic doses of LSD or psilocybin.
Sewell and John Halpern, both of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center, decided to investigate. They interviewed 53 cluster-headache sufferers around the world who had self-administered psychedelics in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms. Medical records were checked to verify that they did indeed suffer from cluster headaches.
Acid test
Their results are startling: the majority (85%) of psilocybin users report that it aborted attacks — better than oxygen, which stopped attacks for 52% of the patients surveyed. LSD and psilocybin were both better at preventing future attacks than conventional medicines.
.........
The study was partly funded by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), a non-profit alliance of scientists and campaigners that funds research into the therapeutic benefits of psychoactive drugs and lobbies for changes in US law (!!!!).
The California-based MAPS is also helping to fund a study into the effects of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) on post-traumatic stress disorder. And a MAPS-funded study into psilocybin as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder has been completed at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Halpern is separately leading another study on the effects of MDMA on end-stage cancer anxiety.
Halpern and Sewell are now pushing for clinical trials of LSD and psilocybin. "We owe it to patients to determine whether this treatment works," says Sewell. "And we owe it to neurologists to provide them with accurate information so that they can effectively counsel patients."
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