I have been having some bad spasticity pain in my right leg. It's right behind my knee and travels downward.

I have a prescription for 10 mg Baclofen to be taken 3X daily. It's not enough. I have been doubling up and taking 20 mg two or three times daily. Sometimes that's not even enough. I guess I could tolerate the pain....but it gets annoying to never find a comfortable position to sit or lay...so I end up taking the meds.

How much is too much? What does everyone else take?

Kelly - I can't tolerate even 10 mg so I don't take anything. I move around a lot when the spasticity gets bad as I just can't stay still. I also take my Epsom salt bath and that helps quite a bit. For me, I think the Neurontin helps with some of the pain and spasticity. I can't imagine what I would be like without it. Quite honestly, I don't want to find out.

When I was at the neuros last week, we talked about the baclofen and how it made me feel at the 10 mg. She did say that 10 mg was the starting dose on the baclofen and you work your way up from there. However, since it wasn't working for me, we didn't discuss how high up I could go. Wait, 10 mg made me high enough. LOL So, rephrase, we didn't discuss the maximum dose.

If it is not working for you, call the prescribing dr and see if they can switch you to something else.

Kelly,

I'm so sorry to hear about the spasticity you are experiencing . As you know, I don't have MS but my nanan had Progressive MS and have just asked my mum and she says she took 30mg Baclofen 3x daily for the Spstricity and even that didn't help.

In the end, my nanan ended up having to get the Intravenious (sp?) Baclofen Pump has it was getting to the point where the dosage she needed orally was just too much. The pump worked really well in the beginning but has her condition deteriated, it stopped working.

I have quite a lot of muscle spasms with RSD and my doctor prescribed me 10mg Baclofen but we were finding that sometimes it was making me too "floppy" and wasn't working on the affected areas of my body so we decided to come off it.

I hope you find something that works for you and I am keeping you in my thoughts.

I take 10mg at night, and a 5mg during the day, or afternoon after getting my chores done.

It sounds like you may need to either be bumped up temp to find relief, or you may need to switch over to like a Zanaflex while this thing sorts itself out.

I love epsom salt baths, and or muscle rubs, and ben gay type products. I find that when my spasms get cranking, its best just to stop for the day, and rest. sometimes it take days and days to recover.

I hope you feel better.

Are you sure it is spasticity, Kelly?

Maybe it's just me (never asked others before), but spasticity always hits both sides (arms and/or legs) at the same time for me.

Is it possible you are experiencing sciatica or something else? Have you been checked out by your GP?

Cherie

I'm assuming it's spasticity because I have been having it in my hand as well (right hand that is numb) and the Baclofen helps somewhat...just not enough for me to get comfortable. I guess I could take 30 mg at a time, but it would make me very woozy if I did. Baclofen is one of the drugs on the $4 generic list so that helps since I won't have any insurance after the end of the year.

I take 10 mg two times a day. I am not sure that it really helps. My spasticity is usually all on one side (left) from my rib cage down to my foot. I deal more with stiffness and that heavy feeling than with actual spasms. The spasms come and go.

Good Grief!

Here I was thinking my spasticity was lessened, until I read everyone else's dosages!
I do 40-60 mg a day of Baclofen and 4-8 mg of Zanaflex when I go to bed.

I cut baclofen out completely this summer when I was sick with salmonella, along with the zanaflex and my provigil. I couldn't keep them down and the illness was worse than the spazzing and I wasn't getting up and walking for two weeks anyway!

I told the neuro about it and he said to add them back as needed. I hoped that I would be able to cut them out completely, but nooooo. I added the baclofen back, starting at 10 mg, but worked up to previous dose within a month or so. Ditto with the zanaflex. I have more days when I only need 4 mg of the zanaflex, but on those days when I wake up swearing and groaning with leg or hand spasms, I'll do another 4 mg tab. I have to take the baclofen as soon as I get up. I do stretching every day before I get out of bed, but I still walk stiffly until I get going. There's still days when the spasms are right at the edge of my consciousness, waiting to spring on me if I make a wrong move. There's days when the spasms don't let go for days and I feel like I got hit by a car or that my hands got caught in a wringer. I have a splint that I got when I had IVSM one time, I use that to immobilize my hand when the wringer feeling happens.

The pain will be there for days and then all of a sudden...the spasms are gone, until the next round.

My neuro told me to take both the baclofen and the zanaflex (and the provigil!) as needed but to let him know when I get to a certain amount of each.

I'd been on 10 mg three times a day of Baclofen until a month ago, when my neuro upped my dose by 10 mg a day. So, now I take 10 mg in the morning, 20 mg in the afternoon, and 10 mg in the evening.

A couple of months ago I tried to decrease the Baclofen, but the muscle spasms came back almost immediately in my legs. I have dreams of getting off all prescription medications some day, but I also have a low tolerance for pain!

Last Thursday, my PCP upped my dose again. I had gone to him because of an intense pain I was getting at night in bed that was relieved only by me getting up and walking around for awhile.

No matter how I laid in bed or shifted position, the pain came and wouldn't go away until I got on my feet. He told me it was muscle spasm, and that we needed to increase my Baclofen.

I'm now taking 20 mg three times a day, and it appears to be working. He also said it may help a little with my tremors.