• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Psilocybin dose-dependently causes delayed, transient headaches in healthy volunteers

Migrated topic.
I'll add my recent data points:

7g cubensis - very mild but noticeable headache that started 5 or 6 hours after returning to baseline, lasted for a few hours.

10g cubensis - much worse than the previous trip, pounding throbbing headache at around the same time afterwards that would mostly go away if I tried to not move my head or exert myself. It was significantly reduced in severity by taking acetaminophen.

It seems like there is some sort of residual headache that can occur when the brain is stimulated by psilocin for long periods of time. I also paid special attention to keeping hydrated, so it wasn't that. Interestingly, I have had very similar headaches that occurred while on pharmahuasca, with doses of 150mg and 200mg DMT fumarate, so it is likely the same is true of DMT in high doses over long periods of time. I had assumed that it was the harmalas that gave me the headache, but now I am thinking it is the tryptamines that can cause headaches, at least with certain individuals.

I never get headaches after smoking DMT though...
 
Hmm, this is interesting.
I have heard of these headaches before, but personally have never suffered from any.
I usually take mushrooms around midnight and come down in the morning, so I am a bit worn out most of the time from the lack of sleep, but I don't really have any headaches.
But like I said, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of this online, and the one time my uncle tried sclerotia after years without psychedelics he said he had a terrible headache the next day. Guess I'm just lucky :)
 
Psilocybin is used for treating and healing cluster headaches with dose dependent value settings. As with most psychedelics, it's essentially the same idea. This could explain why higher doses lead to the actual pain itself due to overactive stimulation of serotonin receptors or other receptors. MAPS is currently enrolled in these kind of studies with some confirmation here and there, but nothing official.

I'll add my recent data points:7g cubensis - very mild but noticeable headache that started 5 or 6 hours after returning to baseline, lasted for a few hours.
10g cubensis - much worse than the previous trip, pounding throbbing headache at around the same time afterwards that would mostly go away if I tried to not move my head or exert myself. It was significantly reduced in severity by taking acetaminophen.
It seems like there is some sort of residual headache that can occur when the brain is stimulated by psilocin for long periods of time. I also paid special attention to keeping hydrated, so it wasn't that. Interestingly, I have had very similar headaches that occurred while on pharmahuasca, with doses of 150mg and 200mg DMT fumarate, so it is likely the same is true of DMT in high doses over long periods of time. I had assumed that it was the harmalas that gave me the headache, but now I am thinking it is the tryptamines that can cause headaches, at least with certain individuals.
I never get headaches after smoking DMT though...
Click to expand...

This is very interesting data. I think 10 grams is a given, though. Hydration can definitely play a role in countering or partially countering any negative effects. And I would caution those in taking pharmaceutical pain relievers in combination with psilocybin, as both induce effects and changes in the liver and their metabolites/enzymes thereof. I think that individuals with higher levels of serotonin are more at risk, too, due to over-stimulation.
 
This is very interesting, I have never had a headache from mushrooms ... but my gf gets them all the time when she trips....

Thanks for info!

Peace
 
After this one, i took some 5htp before bed (100mg). It helped with the headaches, which were greatly diminished. Hangover remained the same (tiredness, dizzyness, slight nausea).

I think there is something to it. Perhaps i'll take 200mg the next time.
 
This is interesting , I've been getting really bad headaches after
My last 2 mushroom trips . The trips were a week apart first headache
was bad it lasted all night into the next day. I really suspected a food interaction
Causing a problem . I'm trying some different things to see if I can mitigate this.
 
I'd just like to add that I posted a thread about these same types of headaches..(seeking a way to minimize them as they really distract from the experience).

For me is feels like the ache comes within my brain and can also be felt within my arms and other random places of the body. Like a deep ache from the trip being so intense. I start to get them when I am coming up hard, feel them during the peak but I am preoccupied with other thoughts..then when I am coming down they really set in the most. They disappear about an hour or two after hitting baseline.

If I could minimize these feelings I would be much more eager to pursue psychedelics, but in general they are very physically uncomfortable for me even if I am having a great experience.

I get the same types of headaches and body aches with LSD, but do not experience them on DMT or ayahuasca.

Is it ill advised to take Tylonol or Advil on the comeup? It has been something I have considered for a long time since experimenting with these substances.
 
Global said:
That's interesting snozz. I have some friends who after they smoke DMT will report headaches as well. I've experienced them on occasion, but not anything significant. With DMT, sometimes just taking in a hot vapor is enough to set it off though.
Click to expand...

One of my friends gets quite bad headaches from vaping DMT, and also gets mild headaches from mushrooms. I've found that meditation helps with headaches but i've never had a really bad headache that lasted more than a few seconds.

I do find i can get a slight pressure in my head towards the end of mushrooms and that drinking cold water allieviates it for a while. I've also noticed the pressure can happen when lying down trying to sleep when it's just too early for that.

I think that breathing patterns could also play a role in this. When i trip my breathing usually slows right down then when coming back my body starts to need more air again, i've noticed that taking a few deep breaths can help with this. I've also found that eating can help, when i start eating a reintegration meal i automatically start taking in deep breaths, it's like being drawn back into physicality and needing all that comes with it, food, hydration, oxygen.
 
I think you'd have to be a buddhist monk to take your attention away from a bad case of DMT headaches. :p It truly is a horrible experience and one of the reasons i don't vape DMT anymore or take psychedelics often for that matter.

But then, i've tried the 5-htp + melatonin trick the other day. 200mg 5-htp + 200 microgram melatonin. Felt groggy the next day but almost no sideeffects. But they seem to creep back once you stop the treatment so the next thing i wanna try is to take the pills for several days after a trip.

It would be truly wonderful if there was a surefire way to treat this migraine.
 
It would be great if there was more research & education about this kind of thing so we could prepare accordingly, when looking into mushrooms i don't recall once seeing any mention of headaches being a potential issue, it was a good idea to sticky this thread.
 
I had 2 grams of dried mexican cubensis , had a great trip.
The next day morning i woke up with the worst pounding head ache ever....had to stay in bed the whole day...headache stayed for a good 24 hours. I didn't take any medicines though.
It's been the worst headache i have ever encountered.
After that i have never touched mushrooms, always stick to LSD.
 
Maybe because your minds more open and connected and your senses were significantly enhanced you are now aware that of things that you did not notice before?

Just a thought, i remember someone saying mushrooms or lsd helped them become aware of headaches then lead them to a healthier diet and fixed the problem.
 
It's not just dehydration that could cause headache. Drinking too much water (because you're afraid of dehydration) can also cause headaches.

I often get headaches if i get too little sleep. And stress can also cause severe headaches. I'm thinking with pdychedelics it could either be a physical or mental thing.

It would be worthwile to see if taking a sleepingpill to quickly fall asleep after, or relaxation exercises before and during, would have an effect.
 
So after some change of lifestyle and reduction of certain bad habits I tripped again on psilocybin. This time I didn't get the headache..

I think its something we can work around. Like eating well, exercise, sleep, general health may help with NOT getting a headache during/after the come down.

My 2cents. More research is needed(personally and globally)​
 
Thank you for sharing. I noticed numerous headaches when titrating a microdose regimen (specifically the ON days). I was rather worried at first, but it eventually went away completely. However, I've never experienced a headache after a trip (1.5g - 5g). I'd like to understand what was going on.
 
stuartroelke said:
Thank you for sharing. I noticed numerous headaches when titrating a microdose regimen (specifically the ON days). I was rather worried at first, but it eventually went away completely. However, I've never experienced a headache after a trip (1.5g - 5g). I'd like to understand what was going on.
Click to expand...
Interesting that this should come up since the other day I was leafing through RAW's Cosmic Trigger (vol. 1) and specifically noticed where he mentioned that, back in the '60s, the day after mushrooms he got a headache. His tentative conclusion was that coffee had something to do with it.

While the study in the OP might indicate otherwise (I ought to read it first :D), it may be worth giving time to careful reflection to other components of your diet considering how you were microdosing whereas the other reports of headache correspond to intake of larger amounts.
 
Transform said:
Interesting that this should come up since the other day I was leafing through RAW's Cosmic Trigger (vol. 1) and specifically noticed where he mentioned that, back in the '60s, the day after mushrooms he got a headache. His tentative conclusion was that coffee had something to do with it.

While the study in the OP might indicate otherwise (I ought to read it first :D), it may be worth giving time to careful reflection to other components of your diet considering how you were microdosing whereas the other reports of headache correspond to intake of larger amounts.
Click to expand...
Thanks to this comment, I just realized that I have unintentionally avoided caffeine with trips. Consistently, I have managed to ween off caffeine for days, weeks, or sometimes months before partaking. The stars have aligned in such a way that I have only intentionally avoided caffeine with aya, and unintentionally with other psychedelics. Perhaps--only once--have I consumed a blend that included green tea leaves, but that did not seem to bother me.

However, I currently take about 400mg of caffeine daily. I did not stop or slow this intake when I started the MD.
Very peculiar indeed.
 
Having now read the paper, it appears tha headache occurred at least sometimes even at the lowest dose in the study (5mg, standardised for bodyweight), and there appeared to be a correlation between dose size and both frequency and duration of headaches.

How does this measure up in comparison to your microdose?

Unfortunate, but also perhaps understandable, that there was no mention of controlling for coffee/caffeine intake in the study, although I've only skimmed the article so far and certainly haven't read the fine print!
 
Back
Top Bottom