Posted by Russell on March 17, 1999 at 21:24:16:
In Reply to: Imetrix/Verapamil/etc.(????) posted by Andrea on March 15, 1999 at 16:18:24:
That is my pet peeve: a doctor (or patient) gets great results from a treatment for cluster headaches and then decide they have discovered THE CURE. While it's great to tell the story of the success and for doctors to try the treatment on other patients. The problem comes when THE CURE doesn't work for some people and instead of trying something else the doctor keeps increasing the dose or decides the patient doesn't really have clusters after all. My former doctor made this false statement: "Verapamil and lithium are the [preventative] drugs for cluster headache. If they're not working then either it's not cluster or the dosage is not high enough!" I actually went up t 960 mg of verapamil per day with that doctor, twice the manufacturer's recommended dose, and it still didn't help.
And really the doctors have NO excuse for saying something works for everyone. The medical studies that the government requires all show that each treatment fails for a significant number of people. Unfortunately often all a patient can do is move from one doctor to the next, letting each prescribe their version of THE CURE.