Just a thought.  I have been prescribed adderall for ADD since I was a child, but only take it now when I am studying on the weekends for the CPA.  I just took adderall for the the first time since this cycle started and noticed the lingering HA I've had for the past few days disappeared.  I know adderall and other stimulants constrict blood vessels.  Basically what I am wondering is if it's just a coincidence the HA dissipated or if adderall could be that effective.

From a  post from 2008:
My husband has been taking Adderall for three years now...
He was having regular cycles, until he started adderall.  Since he's started it - NO CYCLE. 
He had a one week period where he has 3 clusterheadaches that were "minor".  (HIS word, not mine)... and that's IT in the last three years.
Maybe you're just having cycles... like a clusterhead. 
  My husband's neuro doesn't think it affects CH... we've asked... my husband, on the other hand - thinks the adderall has something to do with it.    Who knows. 

And this from 2006

I stayed on the Adderall, a very very low dose (5mg a day). Since I've been taking it I haven't had large headache to date. I still get minor ones, but usually that are attributed to me being hungry. I can't say its for everyone, for it is an amphetamine and may be illegal in your country (I'm in the US). However, I've noticed that being able to concentrate more on the tasks at hand, like my thesis, I'm using less brain power to look at everything as a whole big picture instead of looking at a tiny snapshot in my little world. My usual time of late march/early April cluster has not hit yet, and hopefully it will not hit any time soon.



There were a few older posts but they pretty much followed the same thame. The lack of any current postings or any volume of postings tells me it's not a big treatment for CH. That being said...there's still so damned much we don't know about the noggin, who knows???? :D

Joe

Wow, probably should have looked for that myself I apologize.   Thanks.

No problem, us old retired types have time on our hands!!! ;)

Joe

There has been some recorded history of other amphetamines (Ritalin) working for cluster.

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Methylphenidate (Ritalin) has never impacted my CHs one way or the other. However, when I have gone off of it and restart I get terrible regular, frontal headaches for the first day or so.

I had taken Adderal XR30 daily for years and never had it change my cycles. I now take 10mg (not xr) 1-2 times a day only as needed on workdays, and still have cycles. Doesn't appear to have affected my cycles at all.

I googled cluster ha a while back and it stated that was one of the drugs they use to treat it, i think it even popped up on cluster busters

"Big" treatments for clusters are usually the best to star with. If they don't help then any treatment that does is a godsend. Many O2 users can't believe that it won't work the same for everyone. The same with imitrex. O2 has been of some benefit, but worked only for a few months (and yes I have used a very high flow rate and used it properly), Imitrex does nothing for my ch attacks. Yet for a bad migraine it will knock it right out.  I take adderall in the morning for my ch. I had never used it before and never for anything else. I have been chronic for just under 20 years. I almost always got an attack that either woke me or right after I woke up. Since adderall I virtually never get an attack in the morning and have been able to decrease my other meds as well. For me it's 3 hours of doing nothing but getting through an attack to doing something productive for 3 hours in the morning. MikeS

Quote:

Many O2 users can't believe that it won't work the same for everyone. The same with imitrex.

First, I think I can speak for all of us we're delighted you have found something that works. No one here is going to say, unless you've tried or used XX you aren't pain free.

Second, I don't think the above quote is quite right, for two reasons. To begin with, we find too many who have said O2 didn't work only to discover they were trying to abort a CH using a device and flow rate suitable for pulmonary relief. The other reason is we want something to work for everyone so much we are exuberant in support of what has worked for us.

If I have mispoken on behalf of others here, I apologize, but I think we all want the same thing. When there is something that works for so many, it's worth touting. God bless. lance

O2 is worth tauting. When I was at Diamond Clinic several years ago a man came in who used O2 with great results. I didn't mean to say anything negative about O2 users. I used O2 for a couple of months and it worked very well for my 1st attack of the day. (I was getting 3-4 attacks daily and they always last 3 hours.) It sometimes started to abort my 2nd attack but never really pulled it off. After 10 or so days It would help with my 1st attack then I would get it an hour later and it's onset was very, very quick. After a couple weeks It helped less and less even with an increased flow. I had to move on to others treatments. I was told many times that I didn't have the flow high enough, yet I had it as high as it was ever recommended on any site or info I got a hold of. So i just meant that I really gave it a go with the o2. MikeS