Baclofen Confusion
 

I am currently taking 60 mg of baclofen a day. I am not sure if it has ever really helped me. When I tel my neuro about my increased stiffness and pain when I am walking, he just increases my dose. Fortunately it does not make me sleepy. I am also lucky in that I only occasionally suffer with spasms. My problem is that my left leg feels like a block of wood. It seems to be heavier and stiffer. So walking is more difficult. I am constantly amazed that my knee even bends. It just used to be stiff from the knee down but now it is generally the entire leg.

So I am trying to decide if I should just slowly taper down to see what happens. On the other hand, I do not want to deal with increased spasms. I am not sure what to do. My neuro is not much help. When he prescribed the increase in dosage (January), he told me to try it and if it did not help we could consider something else when I see him in May.

Its worth a try to give it a go. either it will help or it wont. If it helps, hurray! if not, you will have eliminated that suspect from the list.

Hang in there barb. :hug:

If you're still having difficulty when you see him in May, you might want to ask for zanaflex capsules (not tablets). It seemed to help me much more than the baclofen when I switched.

I took 20mg x3 for 18 yrs for paraplegia and now with MS, 20mg x6.
I still get terrible spasms. Zanaflex eh?

Might want to talk to the doc about weaning down to a smaller dose or to try something else for the spasms. I tried 20mg of the stuff - one dose of 20 at night and one during the day. I couldn't do the day time one. :( My muscles relaxed too much that it felt like my knees were hitting bone on bone when I walked. My MIL just upped her dose and is having the same issue that I did.

Hope it gets better soon. :hug::hug::hug:

Jim, as you know is in the same place. We did decrease the Baclofen and increased the Tizantidine and it is helping. We're talking with his doctor tomorrow.

I think tizanadine did a MUCH better job at my spastic stuff, but I also found wild dreams, and a hyper excitability at night that made it hard to rest.

There are just so many unknowns in this whole mess. I hope you are able to find some comfort.

on it too and now worse muscle pain, the neuro will not increase anymore though above the 50-60 dose, he said more than that will just get me having side effects more than helping more... and we are talking more on my muscle stuff in end of month. going to PT now though for the muscle spasms too. hugss good luck,sarah

:I-Agree:I take 50mg of baclofen and feel the same way. but i am so sleepy i have to take a nap and then still am in bed by 8. I feel like half the time i am going to fall. I walk much slower now becuase my legs feel like they weigh 100lbs. I to have an appt with my dr. in May i cannot continue to feel like this and plus i have 2 kids and i cannot be so tired all the time like this.

hope you feel better.

Jim's doctor agreed to lower Jim's Baclofen and increase his Tizanadine. He wasn't on board at first but listened and understood what we were telling him.

He did talk a little about Baclofen and how they do not like to prescribe it at higher doses to those still walking. He said it weakens the muscles and makes it harder to walk sometimes. I know what he means because the only reason Jim walked as long as he did was because of stiff legs.