The Relative Efficacy of Seven Skeletal Muscle Relaxants An Analysis of Data From Randomized Studies

However, more severe cases, these primary treatments may prove insufficient. For persistent pain, your primary care physician may recommend muscle relaxants. If you have acute back or neck pain due to a musculoskeletal injury or fibromyalgia, cyclobenzaprine is the best treatment option. If you have spasticity or persistent pain as a result of neurological disease or injury, such as multiple sclerosis or a spinal cord injury, baclofen may be the best option for you.

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Lioresal is a popular and first-choice treatment for muscle spasticity caused by spinal cord injuries or multiple sclerosis. Apart from the specific muscle spasms caused by brain injury or multiple sclerosis, Lioresal is not the best medicine to take. There are many alternatives available to Baclofen, but they treat only a specific type of muscle pain. Conservative treatment, such as physical therapy, exercise, and NSAIDs, should always be the first choice for remedying muscle spasms and related pain.

Inappropriate Use of Skeletal Muscle Relaxants in Geriatric Patients

If both medicines are prescribed together, your doctor may change the dose or how often you use one or both of the medicines. Muscle spasms are sudden and involuntary muscle tightness or contractions, and are most often caused by muscle fatigue or injury. None flexeril painkiller of these medications treats the medical condition for which it is used. Unfortunately, there are no available manufacturer’s coupons for Baclofen or Flexeril at this time. A manufacturer’s coupon comes from the drug company that makes Baclofen or Flexeril.

Muscle relaxers (also called muscle relaxants) are prescription medications that affect muscle function. Healthcare providers prescribe them to treat several symptoms, such as muscle spasms, spasticity and musculoskeletal pain. This medication is typically used to treat muscle spasms and other symptoms in sufferers with disease or injury of the spinal cord. Also, it is used to treat muscle symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis (an autoimmune disease that attacks the brain and central nervous system), including pain, spasm, and stiffness. Patients with low back pain or fibromyalgia may benefit from treatment with cyclobenzaprine. Higher doses of cyclobenzaprine or tizanidine would be appropriate to promote sedation in cases of more severe discomfort or perceived muscular spasm.

• Particularly taking tricyclic antidepressants with Lioresal may lead to muscle weakness.
• The perceived benefits of taking any medication should always outweigh the potential risks.
• If other treatments don’t work to alleviate the pain, providers may recommend a muscle relaxant.
• Any missing drug warnings or information does not in any way guarantee the safety, effectiveness, or the lack of adverse effects of any drug.

Skeletal muscle relaxants are widely used in treating musculoskeletal conditions. However, evidence of their effectiveness consists mainly of studies with poor methodologic design. In addition, these drugs have not been proven to be superior to acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for low back pain. Comparison studies have not shown one skeletal muscle relaxant to be superior to another. Cyclobenzaprine is the most heavily studied and has been shown to be effective for various musculoskeletal conditions.

Baclofen vs Flexeril (Cyclobenzaprine) – Which Is The Better Muscle Relaxer?

There are several alternative therapies to skeletal muscle relaxants, depending on the reason for use. TABLE 3 gives a summary of possible alternatives.17 For patients with lower back pain, it is important to understand that most pain resolves on its own and does not require medical treatment. Skeletal muscle relaxants are a sedating class of medications used to treat spasticity and pain. Their sedative properties can pose a risk for geriatric patients who are predisposed to falls.

One study found that patients with acute lower back pain treated with ibuprofen (NSAID) alone had similar pain and function levels to patients treated with baclofen and ibuprofen (7). Antispastic medications are effective in treating spasticity, but high doses can lead to unwanted side effects. Other treatments can help with spasticity as well, including physical therapy and Botox® injections.

Certain medicines should not be used at or around the time of eating food or eating certain types of food since interactions may occur. Using alcohol or tobacco with certain medicines may also cause interactions to occur. Discuss with your healthcare professional the use of your medicine with food, alcohol, or tobacco. Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to change the dose, or other precautions may be necessary.

If you take them together, the side effects are much more intense, which can be dangerous. The two main possible complications of taking muscle relaxers are the potential for overdose and dangerous interactions with alcohol. This means they have addiction potential and can cause withdrawal symptoms if you develop a dependence and stop taking them. You should avoid these medications if you have a personal or family history of substance use disorder. Yes, prescription muscle relaxers can make you sleepy due to how they affect your central nervous system. Because of this, you should be cautious about operating heavy machinery, such as driving a car, or making important decisions while taking these medications.

It is also indicated in spinal cord problems, treating alcoholism, and CNS lesions. There is decreased susceptibility to CNS depression with this antispastic agent. Both baclofen and Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine) are skeletal muscle relaxants that work in different ways to relieve muscle spasm. Both carry significant adverse effects and should only be used for short-term treatment. The evidence suggests that cyclobenzaprine is an effective treatment for musculoskeletal conditions and outperforms placebos, especially in patients with acute lower back or neck pain (1, 4). Short duration studies show that cyclobenzaprine is also effective in reducing pain from fibromyalgia (10).