A patient community term for using sub-psychedelic doses of psilocybin or LSD to abort or prevent cluster headache attacks. The practice was documented and shared online since the 1990s, formalised by the Clusterbusters patient advocacy organisation, and subsequently verified in a 2015 survey (Schindler et al., Journal of Psychoactive Drugs) showing 50–80% of cluster headache patients who tried psychedelics reported benefit — often at sub-hallucinogenic doses. This patient-led observation drove Yale's formal clinical investigation.
Cluster-busting is a patient community term for using sub-psychedelic doses of psilocybin or LSD to abort or prevent cluster headache attacks. The practice was documented and shared online since the 1990s, formalised by the Clusterbusters patient advocacy organisation, and subsequently verified in a 2015 survey (Schindler et al., Journal of Psychoactive Drugs) showing 50–80% of cluster headache patients who tried psychedelics reported benefit — often at sub-hallucinogenic doses. This patient-led observation drove Yale's formal clinical investigation.
See: Cluster Headaches (/conditions/cluster-headaches).
Cluster-busting illustrates how patient-led discovery preceded and motivated formal research on psilocybin for cluster headache.