Pubdate: Tue, 02 Aug 2005
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Mark Honigsbaum

HEADACHE SUFFERERS FLOUT NEW DRUG LAW

Calls For Clinical Trials And Rethink Of Legislation As Patients Claim That 
Magic Mushrooms Can Relieve Excruciating Condition

Patients who suffer from cluster headaches - a debilitating medical 
condition for which there is no cure - are flouting the government's ban on 
magic mushrooms because they say the psychedelic fungi are the only thing 
to relieve the pain of their attacks.

In the past two years scores of British cluster headache sufferers have 
turned to magic mushrooms, prompted by reports from the US that suggest 
that LSD and psilocybin - the active ingredient of magic mushrooms - may be 
able to control the intensity and duration of their headaches.

Although some have experimented with psychedelics before, the majority have 
no history of drug taking. But many say they would rather risk jail than 
forgo a substance that lets them lead a normal life.

Richard Ayliffe, 39, a chronic sufferer from Dudley in the West Midlands, 
says he has tried conventional treatments but the only thing to have 
brought him relief is magic mushrooms. Without them he says he would not be 
able to hold down a job.

"People are quite sympathetic at first but once you've let them down for 
the third time sympathy turns to exasperation," he says. "Magic mushrooms 
have enabled me to lead a normal life."

Like other members of ClusterBusters - an online forum where cluster 
headache sufferers swap notes and discuss alternative treatments - Ayliffe 
claims that taking magic mushrooms not only interrupts his cycle of 
headaches, but buys him longer remission periods between attacks. Some 
sufferers claim that since taking mushrooms they have been pain-free for up 
to two years.

And, because an attack can come at any time many members stockpiled 
mushrooms ahead of the government's ban this month.

Last week one member of the group, a 41-year-old father of two who asked to 
be identified only as Lee, admitted he had already taken one dose in 
contravention of the ban.

Under the Drugs Act 2005 possession of magic mushrooms is a class A offence 
punishable by a seven-year prison sentence. Previously, only psilocybin and 
other preparations of mushrooms, but not the fresh product itself, were 
controlled.

"The way I see it, either I break the law or forgo the most effective 
treatment I have found in nearly six years," says Lee.

Since he began taking mushrooms a year ago, he says the intensity of his 
headaches has shrunk by a third and the remissions between attacks have 
lengthened to 40 days.

"It's absolutely incredible," he says. "I can't tell you how much magic 
mushrooms have changed my life."

Spurred by the cases, researchers at Harvard Medical School are hoping for 
permission from the US food and drug administration to conduct a controlled 
trial.

John Halpern and his colleague Andrew Sewell have collected 60 case studies 
from members of ClusterBusters. With the support of the Boston-based 
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps), they plan to 
publish the cases in a leading journal with a view to getting FDA approval 
for a clinical trial next year.

Maps is already sponsoring an FDA trial of psilocybin for the treatment of 
obsessive compulsive disorder.

"At this stage we are not advocating anything - we're just trying to gather 
information and see if we can get a sense of the appropriate dosage," says 
Rick Doblin, the president of Maps. "Having said that, I find the anecdotal 
reports pretty convincing."

Cluster headaches come in cycles and are caused by a swelling of the blood 
vessels in the brain. Sufferers say the pain exceeds that of passing a 
kidney stone or of childbirth without anaesthetic.

Some have found the pain, which typically extends over one side of the head 
and face, so unbearable that they have committed suicide.

For episodic sufferers, the headaches typically last several weeks then 
disappear. But in chronic sufferers - of whom there are an estimated 6,000 
in Britain - attacks occur daily, with no more than two weeks' remission in 
any 12-month period. They can continue for years.

Conventional treatments include oxygen and Imitex (sumatriptan), an 
anti-migraine medication that constricts the flow of blood in the brain. 
Since only two injections can be taken in a 24-hour period, however, this 
is of little use for chronic sufferers.

Verapamil, a calcium channel blocker, can also be used as a prophylactic 
against attacks, - but to be effective it has to be taken in high doses, 
increasing the risk of such side effects as cardiac arrest.

Peter Goadsby, professor of neurology at the Institute of Neurology, 
University College London, and the world's leading expert on cluster 
headaches, is sceptical about the mushroom therapy.

He argues that the relief reported by some patients may be a placebo effect 
or owing to natural remission. But he does believe the cases warrant a 
proper clinical study, particularly as ergotomine - which contains lysergic 
acid, a precursor of LSD - has been used to treat migraines for years.

"It's possible that mushrooms have some useful effect but it's far from 
proven," Dr Goadsby says. "Cluster headaches are such a devastating problem 
that people will turn to anything that seems to work."

But one sufferer, John Hobson, 36, from Barnsley in Yorkshire, says since 
experimenting with mushrooms last year his night-time attacks have ceased 
and he no longer gets headaches early in the morning. But because of the 
change in the law Mr Hobson says he has decided to discontinue the therapy.

"If I could have mushrooms growing in my garden for medical use and I knew 
I wasn't going to get lifted by the vice squad I would most definitely do 
it," he says.

"I think the government should introduce an exemption for people in need."
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MAP posted-by: Beth