Baclofen weakness

[lisams]

I started baclofen a week ago on a low dose 5 mg once a day and now 5 mg twice a day. i have had significant leg weakness since starting it. for ex i usually swim 30 lengths, now i can only do 8-10. my walking is also more difficult. my question will this go away as i get used to the medicine or remain. i had planned to ask my doctor this today but he went on vacation for a week.
the baclofen is helping my symptoms a little (tightness and discomfort in my face and neck)

[SNOOPY]

Hello lisams,

You are taking a very low dose of Baclofen. Weakness from Baclofen, if it happens, is at a much higher dose with extended use.

I would guess you have some leg stiffness (spasticity) and even at that low of a dose Baclofen has relaxed your muscles enough to make them feel weak, not that they are weak.

I deal with bi-lateral leg stiffness (spasticity). It's the stiffness that allows me to continue to walk. There is a very fine line between using a muscle relaxant and my ability to walk.

I would suggest talking to your neuro.

[lisams]

baclofen weakness

that is an interesting idea. if my neuro were in town i would be asking him. i wonder if i can increase my strength while on the baclofen.

[Citlalli]

I'm also wondering about Baclofen dosage and side effects. I've taken it now for 4 weeks at 30 mg a day and found it remarkable for relief of spasms and pain, but as the time for each next dose (every 8 hours) approaches, the pain and cramps return, I feel a creepy fullness in my head, and my walking gets terrible again, worse than before I started taking Baclofen. I can't tell yet if this dose is too little or too much. My doctor said to increase it slightly, so today I took 15 mg. twice and just now another 10, so a total of 40 mg. I'm afraid to take too little and afraid to take too much. This feels like a very powerful drug.

My doctor is hard to reach too, and of course it's a weekend. Can't tell if the MS is coincidentally on a tear or the drug is producing some effects than mimic MS. I was so relieved to start it, but now I'm worried that it's causing more harm than good. Without it I can barely walk! Is that a sign that I need it, or that it's wrong for me? Snoopy and others out there, I would love to know more about what your experience has been. I've never taken anything that produced such an instantaneous effect, for good or ill. Within about 30-40 minutes of taking the 10 mg tablet I can walk much better. I'm really confused. Thanks in advance!

[SNOOPY]

i wonder if i can increase my strength while on the baclofen.

Baclofen can be increased (with doctors approval) but if you already feel you are weaker on Baclofen I would suggest discussing this with your neuro or the neuro he may have left on call. Your feeling of weakness might go away with continued use or it might not.

Baclofen has a short half life. The most common way to use Baclofen is X amount 3 times a day. Baclofen needs to be increased and decreased VERY slowly, sometimes as slowly as a half a pill about every 5 days.

Baclofen pills are scored so you can break them in half.

Citlalli:

My doctor said to increase it slightly, so today I took 15 mg. twice and just now another 10, so a total of 40 mg. I'm afraid to take too little and afraid to take too much

.

It doesn't sound like your neuro explained what "increase slightly" means <sigh> I really hate it when a prescribing doctor doesn't explain how to use a medication correctly.

If you are finding your walking is better when taking your next dose then that is telling me it's helping you.

Information about Baclofen:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dru...ION=proper-use

[rdmc]

Lisams,

What Snoopy said was so true. Many of us use a degree of spasticity to our advantage, and the thing is, you get so used to how it feels to walk with spasticity, that when you relieve it, it can feel like weakness (another possibility is that you are in an exacerbation and weakness is from that, but it would be very coincidental seeing your weakness coincided with the baclofen start.)

Can you strengthen a muscle while on baclofen...I'd say so, to a point, depending how that muscle is affected by your MS. I had a pump implanted and my walking had been so affected for so long, prior to the pump, I had not used many muscles in a normal way. I did a lot of PT and I did regain function (and I'd say strength) to a degree in many of those affected muscles. Your neuro should be able to test your strength and tell you if what you are feeling is true weakness.

citallili,

Sounds liken your experience with Baclofen is very normal. The anti spasticity drug are very short acting...that's why you take them in divided doses throughout the day. When they wear off, spasticity returns. Zanaflex would only work for me for about 4 hours, Baclofen about 6. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that increasing the dose does nothing to lengthen the intervention of the drug, just to reduce the degree of spasticity. so a higher dose won't last longer than a smaller dose. The objective is to find a dose that works to relieve the degree of spasticity you have, then take it at regular intervals, so your spasticity is controlled.

As I said, if I'm wrong on that point, I hope someone corrects me...but that was my experience with the med.

[rdmc]

I just answered this post...but it's in two places evidently...for some reason it's in the Technical forum...maybe the mods will move it over to the Med forum

[KarenR]

I just answered this post...but it's in two places evidently...for some reason it's in the Technical forum...maybe the mods will move it over to the Med forum

Thanks for noticing this, rdmc!
The two threads have been merged here in Medications.

Be well,

[lisams]

baclofen weakness

thanks for all the advice. have to decide whether it is worth using this or not. my walking was fairly fine before taking this but it was my face discomfort that is the problem.
as for the 2 places the first time i posted i couldn't figure out how to do it and i happened to be in the technical forum when i figured it out and posted. then i realized it was in the wrong place and people might not see it so i reposted in the right place. sorry for the confusion and thanks for putting the 2 together.

[shalimar]

I take 100 mgs a day - 60 overnite when I cramp up the most and I have noticed that by noon when my next dose is due I start getting very shaky. This happen to anyone else?

[Citlalli]

YOU PEOPLE ARE A GODSEND. Trial & error seem to be showing me what RDMC said: I'm guessing from the past few days that for me this drug is a) very quick-acting (which is great) and b) short-lived, which means I have to narrow the interval between doses. Yesterday I kept to 3 doses 8 hours apart and though I increased the amount from 10 to 15 mg., I still had the horrible feeling as the drug wore off. today I'm going back to 10 but narrowing the time-frame, and I think this may work to keep the spasticity from breaking through. I'm doing 4 doses totalling 40 mg and will see how that goes. So far, so good, with 10 mg. at 8 AM and again at 1:30. Since it's the weekend and I don't have to work, I can listen to the old body and see what time it wants the next amount. If around 6:30 or 7 PM that's what I'll do and then another "hit" at midnight. Sleeping through the night is the next challenge! Last night I was scared to go to sleep because I felt I had taken too much, but now think maybe I had too much coffee during the day to stay awake at work. A lot of fine-tuning with this medication, I'm beginning to understand, but I really want to stay the course bec overall it's made such a huge difference. I don't have a neurologist (insurance issues, being on lovely Medicaid), and my doctor, who is very sweet, is very young and basically just told me to play around until I felt I got the dosage right. Not exactly awe-inspiring, but at least she came up with the light bulb idea of suggesting it to me, for which I'm truly grateful. Lisams, I hope you find the magic line so that the weakness doesn't bother you. For me the Baclofen has significantly improved my walking compared to w/o it, but problems walking are my main symptom, so this is giving me major relief.

[lisams]

baclofen weakness

i think i need to add another part to this puzzle and see if anyone has any comments. at the same time i started the baclofen the elevator in my building went out and stayed out for 5 1/2 days which meant i had to go up and down a flight of stairs which was very difficult. one day i just stayed home. other days i would have a ride down our steep driveway but the rest of the time i dealt with the stairs one leg at a time. so now i am wondering how much of my leg fatigue is due to the stairs rather than the baclofen. anyways it confuses the issue and i wonder how long before my legs recover from the stairs. the elevator was fixed last tuesday.