That's because Rush Limbaugh didn't need it for pain.  He wanted it to
get high.  Psychologists and other scientists have studied people
suffering from chronic pain and your docs are correct.  Less than .1%
had any problems with addiction to addicitive pain killers.  Your body
will suffer more from the stress of chronic pain than from the effects
of morphine.

Kelly

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You can start and stop as you see fit, as long as you are not taking
baclofen on a 3x or 4x daily regimen.  Once you are taking it several
times daily, you need to wean yourself from it gradually, as it has
been known to cause seizures and other side effects when the dosage is
stopped abruptly.  My "need for it" is pretty constant; I wouldn't be
able to walk and would have shot myself in the head to relieve the pain
already, if it weren't for baclofen.  Much less skate..even if it was
just spirals in the living room!

Kelly

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yes, i read about some of the side effects in the drug profile the pharmacy
gave me. I'll be extra careful if I get myself on a higher dose regiment.

Thanks for the extra warning though

Jen
"Kelly" <kbranchal@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1117429573.332364.200580@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com..
> You can start and stop as you see fit, as long as you are not taking
> baclofen on a 3x or 4x daily regimen.  Once you are taking it several
> times daily, you need to wean yourself from it gradually, as it has
> been known to cause seizures and other side effects when the dosage is
> stopped abruptly.  My "need for it" is pretty constant; I wouldn't be
> able to walk and would have shot myself in the head to relieve the pain
> already, if it weren't for baclofen.  Much less skate..even if it was
> just spirals in the living room!
>
> Kelly
>

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"bobbyD" <phatbhatREMOVE@telus.net> wrote in message
news:x0Sle.16394$9A2.15268@edtnps89..
> my doctor and neuro and everyone at the pain clinic stress the fact that
> for me and others like me who will use morphine for the rest of their
> lives,, the word addiction does not apply,

Tracey takes morophine and i worried about that.  Two different docs have
told me when you use morophine as a pain killer, your body proccesses it
differently than if you are a junkie out for a high.  She told us addiction
wasn't gonna happen and to use however much you need to keep your pain at a
livable level.  But then i think of that guy (Brain fart, can't remember his
name), the newscaster with  back problems who was addicted to oxycontin.

Jodi

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It's quite an olde drug,  and even latest research indicates that it's exact
mechanism of operation is still unknown, tho it does supplement the
neurotransmitter gaba, making up for a depletion and returning the spinal
neural synapses to normal muscle tone.

If I can give an example,   my neuro put me on it in some desperation, and I
went from being so stiff I could barely walk and in constant pain to
enthusiastically and flexibly starting work up a ladder within 1 hour of my
first dose.  And have never looked back.

That said,  some friends here have had very severe side effects, so see what
it does for you and take a hint if it doesn't suit you, as sadly is the case
for many. Frankly I thank God for it.

Roarke


"Josiah Daniel Suarez" <0@0.0> wrote in message
news:2b9g911pg0cp09kjkk6omtlt0ms1gd1q9k@4ax.com..
>
> Wow more good sayings about baclofen! I'm going to my neurologist on
> the 31st and I'm going to ask him about this stuff. Sometimes my
> spasticity gets pretty bad, here's hoping this stuff will do the
> trick!
>
> On Sat, 28 May 2005 02:54:06 GMT, "Jennifer" <Jnospam@shaw.ca> wrote:
> 
getting[vbcol=seagreen] 
muscles[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
>

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kamel wrote:
> Your neuro needs to
> monitor your need for it to keep the dose right.  Mine does it by reflex
> testing.  If your reflexes are too jumpy (hyperreflexivity) the dose must 
be
> reduced, or spasticity increases.

hi kamel,

huh -- that's interesting! my neuro does reflex testing as well, but
when he was thinking about prescribing zanaflex, he said the fact that
i was 'hyper-reflexive throughout' (he hit my legs and forearms with
the little reflex hammer) indicated that i had more spasticity than
either he or i had suspected, and that this meant i needed something
STRONGER.

...??..

it sounds like the complete opposite of what your neuro said -- unless
i'm misunderstanding something?

yrz in confusion,
rose

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Roarke wrote:
> That said,  some friends here have had very severe side effects, so see wh
at
> it does for you and take a hint if it doesn't suit you, as sadly is the ca
se
> for many. Frankly I thank God for it.

roarke, my 2nd neurologist prescribed baclofen for my spasticity. 'dr.
psychobitch,'  the neuro between 'dr. feelgood' and 'dr. right.'  ;->

i had a bad reaction after taking the very first PILL -- it seemed like
an allergic reaction to me. i had a skin rash, my face got kind of
swelled, and i had difficulty breathing.

when i told the neuro, she said it was IMPOSSIBLE to have an allergic
reaction to baclofen, then she turned up her well-bred, snobbish little
nose, said 'you must have had a PANIC ATTACK,' and contemptuously wrote
out a prescription for xanax.

i've never had a panic attack before or since, and was already used to
taking 'strange drugs' since the M.S. diagnosis, so can't see any
logical reason why i'd get panicky over baclofen when i hadn't over
prednisone, decadron, flexeril, restoril, amantadine, etc. etc. etc.,
so i really doubt that's what it was. but as for exactly what did
happen, you got me.

my current neuro said it's unusual to encounter allergic reactions to
baclofen, but not impossible. his idea is, if you had a bad reaction
and other things are available, just go ahead and try the other things.
when hearing how great it does by some folks, once in a while i get the
urge to give it another go, but i'm seriously afraid that by THIS time,
i probaly WOULD give myself a panic attack! we tried zanaflex, but in
my case it seemed about as effective as valium, but valium's much
cheaper, so back to valium we went.

MJ helps with the spasticity, so it's my 1st line treatment of choice.
sometimes i'll take half a valium before bed when things are especially
bad. it works for me, so i'm not complaining, but I AM curious. i've
heard of people whose spasticity seems to get worse with baclofen, or a
few who have really weird psychological things go on with it, but i've
never heard of anyone else who had skin reactions and difficulty
breathing. so, maybe it was a panic attack -- but if so, why then, when
never before or after? oh well..just idle curiosity. idling in neutral
right about now!

rose  :->

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Jennifer wrote:
> Jen (who's already practising spiral positions in the living room)

hey, i've been doing that too!

oh, you meant for SKATING...

nevermind!

rose  };->

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Yikes, that is just such an out of order Neuro.   Does sound like an
allergic reaction to me, tho it may be to one of the ancillary components
and not necessary the active compound itself.

One of the problems wih Baclofen is that it increases the levels of a
neurotransmitter called Gaba - which is depleted in cases of our spasticity
in the spinal synapses,   but Gaba is a multifunction neurotransmitter and
occurs in many other regions of the brain and in those locations have
several entirely different regulatory functions.   So by dosing up on
gaba-increasing compounds, a patient can mess up the balances in those other
functions also, hence the wide range of side effects.   It's a dangerous
game,  suddenly stopping taking it from a high dose can cause hallucinations
or seizure, clearly due to withdrawal from these other gaba-sensitive areas
and not the spinal synapses that cause us spasticity.  But the impression I
get from both good and bad tolerators of baclofen is that if it suits, this
shows from the very outset, whereas if there's dodgy effects that is also
indicated early on, or as in your case from the first dose.  My first dose
was a total 5000% positive reaction, probably the total opposite of yours
from the sound of it.

Roarke

"rose" <rosedawn_scott@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1117463889.463358.290200@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com..
> Roarke wrote: 
what[vbcol=seagreen] 
case[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> roarke, my 2nd neurologist prescribed baclofen for my spasticity. 'dr.
> psychobitch,'  the neuro between 'dr. feelgood' and 'dr. right.'  ;->
>
> i had a bad reaction after taking the very first PILL -- it seemed like
> an allergic reaction to me. i had a skin rash, my face got kind of
> swelled, and i had difficulty breathing.
>
> when i told the neuro, she said it was IMPOSSIBLE to have an allergic
> reaction to baclofen, then she turned up her well-bred, snobbish little
> nose, said 'you must have had a PANIC ATTACK,' and contemptuously wrote
> out a prescription for xanax.
>
> i've never had a panic attack before or since, and was already used to
> taking 'strange drugs' since the M.S. diagnosis, so can't see any
> logical reason why i'd get panicky over baclofen when i hadn't over
> prednisone, decadron, flexeril, restoril, amantadine, etc. etc. etc.,
> so i really doubt that's what it was. but as for exactly what did
> happen, you got me.
>
> my current neuro said it's unusual to encounter allergic reactions to
> baclofen, but not impossible. his idea is, if you had a bad reaction
> and other things are available, just go ahead and try the other things.
> when hearing how great it does by some folks, once in a while i get the
> urge to give it another go, but i'm seriously afraid that by THIS time,
> i probaly WOULD give myself a panic attack! we tried zanaflex, but in
> my case it seemed about as effective as valium, but valium's much
> cheaper, so back to valium we went.
>
> MJ helps with the spasticity, so it's my 1st line treatment of choice.
> sometimes i'll take half a valium before bed when things are especially
> bad. it works for me, so i'm not complaining, but I AM curious. i've
> heard of people whose spasticity seems to get worse with baclofen, or a
> few who have really weird psychological things go on with it, but i've
> never heard of anyone else who had skin reactions and difficulty
> breathing. so, maybe it was a panic attack -- but if so, why then, when
> never before or after? oh well..just idle curiosity. idling in neutral
> right about now!
>
> rose  :->
>

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Wish I could get by on half a tablet a day.  I take 12, 10mg tabs a day.

Gary

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