I inject myself three times a week with beta interferon 1a but the spasticity that I am having to endure makes life quite difficult.
Just walking is a problem and getting 'going' again after a period of sitting down is quite difficult.
I have read about 'Baclofen' and feel sure my family doctor would prescribe this for me as it seems the drug itself is not particularly expensive.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your question. First of all, we must all trust our physicians in knowing what medicines and how much to prescribe for each of us individually. Secondly, being educated on our options remains vitally important as we are in charge of our bodies and care.
Ok, now that's out of the way. Baclofen is useful in the treatment of spasticity associated with MS. I, too, have experienced the same type of difficulty in "get going" which you describe and often my calves feel hard as rocks. After a very long time in trying to address my spasticity with stretching and gentle exercise, the neurologist prescribed Baclofen.
Baclofen is a drug which must be increased slowly over time. I think we started with 5mg daily for a number of days (maybe 3), then added 5mg for a number of days, etc. For some folks, 10mg may be enough to see dramatic improvement. For me, I ended up finding optimum benefits at 60mg daily. Please be aware that there are side-effects with this and any other drugs and one should NEVER stop Baclofen cold-turkey without tapering back down.
Also, please be aware that I'm not a doctor nor a medical professional in any capacity. I am simply an MS patient just like you. So talk to your doctor, express clearly how this is affected your daily life and ability to function, and discuss drugs and dosages with him/her.
Anything else you wanna know - please feel free to ask more questions.
Hi my name is Susan and I take Baclofen 3 times a day for my. I all so take neriton as well 800mg 3 times a day. It works for me but my aunt had to change from her neriton to something else for her pain. I hope it works for you. Good luck and have a great weekend.
Baclofin is mainly used for spasticity associated with MS. Every person is different on that respect. I took oral baclofin and other agents and approx.90% oral dosages is used up by the body in general, very little getting to where it is needed. I has shacking so bad that I had a baclofin implant done. The device is manufactured by Medtronics, implant is lower belly, cath. goes from pump to spinal column and is usually inserted in the T4-7 are of your spine. I have a combination of morphine/baclofin at 197. uG/day on a 1000 concentration. This way the med gets directly to your brain and not causing you to lose strenght in other areas of your body. HOWEVER this is a choise to be left to your doctors....God Bless...John
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