[marmab]

I too had severe headaches and high blood pressure when I was on cyclosporine (CsA) after ATG. My liver seemingly really chewed up the CsA, thus requiring a rather high dosage for my body weight. The doctors were constantly fine-tuning my dosage to try and keep me at the recommended therapeutic level, but the high dosages of CsA required to do this gave me severe headaches. Interestingly, as it turns out, the doctors determined that I was one of those rare people in whom CsA has the tendency to decrease counts, rather than help them (it's a bit more complex, but that's the short story). So when it was decided to abruptly stop the CsA six months after my 2nd ATG, my red cell count immediately went up and has stayed above transfusion level for almost a year now. AND, no more headaches! I realize, however, that my reaction to CsA was unusual, and most people cannot discontinue it as I did. Unfortunately, my plts and whites are another story, which is too lengthy to go into here.

So from my experience, I would say, as others have, that CsA can definitely give you headaches. Whether it is the CsA itself, or its tendency to raise blood pressure and affect magnesium, which can cause headaches, is hard to say.