OPIS initiative on access to psilocybin for cluster headaches

Abstract

Cluster headaches are considered one of the most excruciating conditions known to medicine. Centred on one eye and likened to a red-hot poker or ice pick being stabbed into the brain, they tend to be rated close to 10/10 on the pain scale, well above the average for childbirth, kidney stones and migraines. Attacks typically last an hour but range from 15 minutes to ca. 3 hours, and they can recur multiple times a day, often during the night. In the more common episodic form they appear once or twice a year at the same time and can last ca. 1-3 months, while in the 15% of patients with the chronic form, attacks occur every day for months and years without a break. Cluster headaches affect ca. 1-2/1000 people, and the suicide rate has been reported to be 20x the population average. Posts from patients in cluster headache groups express their desperation, describing the pain as unbearable.