Hello all! I am new to this board and have been suffering from CH for >20 years. I have tried many treatments over the years but the only one that has worked consistantly is Imitrex injections. I have found myself in a situation recently that I had never had to contend with: Unemployed, insuranceless and beginning a CH cycle.

My thought is as follows:
It only takes about 2mg to abort my average headache. If a pill contains 100mg of the stuff, couldnt that be dissolved into sterile water and treat up to 50 headaches?

Has anybody ever considered or even tried this?

If ya had oxygen ya wouldn't have bad brain ideas like that one.

          Potter

I do have O2.... It used to work for me but that's changed over the past few years... :(

Donny M wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 10:07am:

I do have O2.... It used to work for me but that's changed over the past few years... :(

O2 at a high flow rate?

         Potter

Yeah.... They used to tell me 8 ltrs/min but I can get up to 15... It seems to only work if I catch the headache real early now and sometimes it's not effective at all

Donny M wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 9:27am:

My thought is as follows: It only takes about 2mg to abort my average headache. If a pill contains 100mg of the stuff, couldnt that be dissolved into sterile water and treat up to 50 headaches? Has anybody ever considered or even tried this?

I see your point, which is saving money, however I wouldn't try it not knowing what else is mixed in the pill.  I doubt that every ingredient of solid in that pill is the whole 100mg....

Crank it up to 25lpm.

          Potter

That crossed my mind as well... I'm sure that there are fillers and binders in there as well.... It's just a thought

Ask your doc and see what he or she says

Not a bad thought if it could work.I had an idea similar to this

Smoking it like a crack rock :o :o :D :D

This thread started bad and got worse.

          Potter

If O2 continues to not be helpful, you can ask your doc for a sample of this med. It's advantage is that it's about $3/dose and, for many of us, as fast acting as Imitrex. (The only restriction is that if you are having several attacks a day you need to discuss total dosing with your doc.) Note that a few people had their clusters permanently stop.
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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.

Donny M wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 10:24am:

Yeah.... They used to tell me 8 ltrs/min but I can get up to 15... It seems to only work if I catch the headache real early now and sometimes it's not effective at all

My world changed when I discovered how well hyper-flow oxygen works for me. 15-20 lpm takes too long to work, allowing my hits to get out of control. If I have to wait 5-10 minutes, I'm pushing K9.

Bumping up to a high enough flow to breathe very, very deeply and quickly at the same time made all the difference in the world. In order to abort my CH's very quickly and very reliably, I use around 40 lpm.

I went from saying "O2 doesn't work for me" to kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

Marc

My regulator does not go that high... Where can I acquire a new regulator?

Quote:

My thought is as follows: It only takes about 2mg to abort my average headache. If a pill contains 100mg of the stuff, couldnt that be dissolved into sterile water and treat up to 50 headaches? Has anybody ever considered or even tried this?

Nope....wouldn't even consider it and certainly would never recommend to anyone else.  Don't do it.

Quote:

My regulator does not go that high... Where can I acquire a new regulator?

See the highlighted oxygen info to the left. 

Donny M wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 12:51pm:

My regulator does not go that high... Where can I acquire a new regulator?

Ebay.

Injecting a tablet meant to be swallowed is asking for real trouble. There are binders and fillers that are perfectly harmless if swallowed, but which could really mess a person up if injected ... things like talc, silicon dioxide (sand), titanium dioxide.


Quote:

Each (Imitrex brand) tablet also contains the inactive ingredients croscarmellose sodium, dibasic calcium phosphate, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, and sodium bicarbonate. Each 100-mg tablet also contains hypromellose, iron oxide, titanium dioxide, and triacetin.

If you are intent on trying this, let us know. I want to start a pool where people can bet on which vital organ of yours is the first to have serious problems.  My wager is on the lungs, though it could be the heart, kidneys, brain, or some other part.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, it's pretty unanimous that what you have there is a profoundly bad idea.

Thanks for all your responses! I think you've convinced me! I will look into a new regulator and O2 mask. I think I have about 3 days worth of Immetrex on hand so I have a little time...

You may also want to check out the imitrex tip to get double and even tripple mileage out of your trex.

;)

Brew wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 3:10pm:

In case you haven't figured it out by now, it's pretty unanimous that what you have there is a profoundly bad idea.

Actually it sounded like a good idea to me, it's just that the devil is in the details.

Shooting up a home brew and risking an embolic stroke doesnt sound like a good idea to me.