Anybody tried Memantine?

[AndiD]

I went to see a private CH specialist consultant yesterday and he's prescribed me a course of Memantine Hydrochloride. It's a dementia drug off that apparently is getting good results for ch sufferers.. 

 

Anybody tried it or got any info before I start? - not a huge amount online about it in relation to CH.

[CHfather]

I hope this works for you, AndiD, and please keep us informed.  As you say, not much online.  I did see a thread over at clusterheadaches.com, from 2010, where a person with intractable CH felt that Namenda (a brand name for memantine hydrochloride) was helping, but there wasn't any substantive follow-up.

PF wishes!

[CDog]

I tried it last September. I was in the process of ramping up 5mg/day for a week, then 5mg twice a day. We were shooting for 10mg twice a day. I never made it that far. I was at about 15 mg/day when very bad depression set in. I got off of it and just in the last month or so, the depression has ebbed.

The meds never had any effect on the CH...

I hope you have more favorable results!

[AndiD]

I can report that I didn't even make it passed day 2 of 5mg - deep depression set in almost immediately and worse clusters than ever. I've stopped and gone back to a proper attempt at Predisone and ramping right up the verapamil til the doc actually finds a dose that works. I WILL kill this cycle.