It’s not an ache. It’s a demon from hell.

Published on October 12, 2026 7:02 PM GMT Impressions from the 21st Annual U.S. Cluster Headache Patient Conference, organized by Clusterbusters. On the morning of the last day of the conference, E. was hanging out with other “clusterheads” outside the conference hotel when he started having a cluster headache attack. Before he could go back to his hotel room, J. offered E. his DMT vape pen. J. is chronic—he gets attacks every day—so he never goes anywhere without his vape pen. He has successfully aborted hundreds of attacks with DMT in the two years he’s been using it. Many years ago, E. had done DMT recreationally, but he had never used it to abort an attack, despite having had cluster headaches for decades. “Do a 2-second pull, and hold it in as long as you can,” said J. to E. A few seconds later, E. could feel some effects, but the pain was still there. So he took another 2-second pull. He then stared intently at a tree in front of him for about 30 seconds. Then, his face transformed. He smiled, in utter disbelief. He started laughing and crying. The pain was completely gone. He felt clear-headed. He had never felt the pain fizzle away so quickly. The other patients who were there and were familiar with that feeling, offered him a hug. “We know,” they said. “We know.” "That first time you abort with DMT," J. told me, "it's special. It's very emotional. I think everyone who's done it remembers their first time." It was not uncommon for attendees to get attacks during the conference in Chicago. There were about 150 patients, many of them chronic or in cycle. As such, there was a room full of oxygen tanks for participants to use freely (high-flow oxygen is the standard, recommended treatment to abort attacks). Oxygen tanks for conference attendees. (Credit: Brian E McGeeney) Clusterbusters, the leading cluster headache advocacy and research organization, has been organizing this annual patient conference for 21 years. This year, they invited me as a representative of ClusterFree, and especially encouraged me to spread the word about our latest project, ClusterInfo. It’s common to hear patients describe their first Clusterbusters conference as “life-changing” and even a “life-saver.” Many of them spend years suffering alone, being told by well-meaning friends and family members things like “oh, I also get headaches! Have you tried Excedrin?” It takes many patients a few years to even learn the term “cluster headache.” So, suddenly being in a room full of people who really understand the torture they endure is, to say the least, cathartic. This was most obvious during the first session of the first day. It’s a tradition to let all first-timers briefly introduce themselves to the rest of the room. The organizers passed around boxes of tissues, knowing there would be tears. And tears were shed indeed—for example, by a man in his forties, desperate to learn more about treatments that could help his teenage daughter, who couldn’t attend herself because she was in poor health. For me, the conference was special in a different way. I’ve been working on cluster headaches nearly full time for about two years. Before that, I had never met anyone with cluster headaches. In these two years, I’ve met only a handful of patients one-on-one, though I chat with many more online almost daily, for example on the ClusterBuds Discord server (of which I’m also a moderator), on Reddit, and on various Facebook support groups. I think about cluster headaches every day, so being in a room full of the people behind the numbers was a bit surreal. This was also the first time the conference included a pediatric track, so a few kids attended. While cluster headaches most commonly start in adulthood, a Clusterbusters survey found that about 28% of respondents started getting their headaches before the age of 18. The organizers emphasized the urgent need for more focus on children, sharing the story of an 11-year-old girl with cluster headaches who tried to take her life the day before the conference began. The second day of the conference featured two plenary sessions on DMT. The first one was a talk by Dr. Erik Zorrilla, who works with Dr. Emmanuelle Schindler at Yale. Dr. Schindler’s team is the only team in the US studying psychedelics for headache conditions. Dr. Zorrilla shared more detailed results from their survey of 88 patients who used DMT to abort their attacks. Some highlights include: 87% reported a complete (100%) or near complete (99%) reduction in pain (70% and 17% of respondents, respectively) 3% reported a 75% reduction in pain, 5% a 50% reduction, 2% a 25% reduction, and only 2% reported it being not effective 76% reported it working in under 1 minute (and 96% in under 5 minutes) 83% reported it working every time without fail (48%) or almost every time (35%) 87% reported it not losing efficacy over time (no tolerance) 53% reported getting other benefits from DMT, such as less anxiety, more energy, or better sleep