Side Effects and Adverse Reactions to Baclofen

[veritas]

Me1, that's just how I feel... this is what a "normal" person feels. I am so happy that you are feeling the benefits.

Grace I had the same horrible reaction when I titrated up too quickly. I also decided to drink with disasterous results. The good news is that I am now AF for 14 days and have absolutely no nausea.

[Cinders]

Beatle,

No, I haven't noticed a change in my moons at all.

The somnolence will dissipate after a few days. Mine did. It seemed to take about three days after upping the dose before I was back to normal.

Great news Me, Beatle and Veritas.

I just keep praying everyone here finds Baclofen to be the help I have.

Love,
Cindi

[me1455]

Beatle I am normally an insomniac also and at first it helped but now im sleeping terribly. weird. im on 70mg. im waking up every morning very early and unable to go back to sleep. its not fun, ive been exhausted. it may not DEFINITELy be from the bac as ive always had insomnia and at times its gotten worse or better than others. i also have what you said :
"I have had a slight reduction in cravings, including an ability to use my willpower when the cravings come, thus putting off the onset of drinking. Also, I notice that I can forgo the "last drink" of the night without much pain"
exactly how im feeling. ive had some nausea while drinking with it though. if i go slow i dont get the nausea. id be interested if other members have that also. i know veritas i think did.

[Lenore]

I've experienced the nausea, and for a few days I was coughing to the point of gagging.

[Zenstyle]

Originally Posted by Saving Grace

I'm still feeling very ill and weak, but I wanted to just give a warning about Baclofen.
Pay careful attention to amount of pills you take.

I have been AF free, I believe it's been 4 days.

I've been having such a problem with insomnia and getting behind on my work, I work from home. I don't have this always, but now at least several times a week under stress, or weekly/less stress. My entire life this has been a problem, my grown daughter with a family, also has always had this. My drinking of course was horrible, I could drink for that amount of hours.

I haven't taken OTC sleep meds because I'm so far behind in my work, I wanted to catch up. I've gone maybe 36-47 hours without sleep several times this last week, my husband does not like me ...not drinking, he is distant now, sometimes hateful when he has too much to drink. He has to look at his drinking then (?), I don't discuss it with him. I try, but best with his anger to let it go.

Of course lack of sleep affects my thinking but I can usually work. Before taking Baclofen, OTC sleeping meds rarely work ( the kind Bill P, the doctor recommends), I've now had maybe 6 hours of sleep.

Ok, to my warning. This is my fault! I've kept a detailed written list of each dose of Baclofen I take. I was at 20mg x 4. Not a problem. This AM thought I hadn't taken the two pills. I was very emotional, crying, telling my husband how hopeful I was. We both looked for the pills, could not find them. I thought, if I did take them, not going to hurt to take 20mg. again. Within the hour I was vomiting, I could not stop, even had dry heaves.

I was so tired and sick. I don't believe I had any further reactions. I was just very weak.
Went to bed and slept 6 hours. I'm trying to think clearly now, awake and can't sleep anymore. I've taken 10 mg to avoid withdrawal, I have kept that down, but with difficulty.

I'm surprised that doubling my dose from 20mg to 40mg would have had this reaction. I will now put my daily pills in a plastic pill container I have with compartments for daily & weekly pills.

I'm sure with some more sleep, tomorrow I will be fine. Not a good thing to go through though.

As stated, I know this is mt fault. I also KNOW I need sleep. With a lifetime of this problem, I have tried every 'tip', recommendation, OTC sleep pill for avoiding this. I've never taken prescription medication for it and won't. I normally avoid drugs for fear of addiction.

Saving Grace... Sorry to hear about your nausea... not a pleasant experience...

When I started taking Baclofen I got around the problem of accidentally taking too much by keeping a little notepad and pen beside my Baclofen and marking down when I'd taken it and how much.

Now that I'm in the habit of taking the Bac throughout the day I cut off the daily amount of pills from the strip and keep them separate from the main "stash" so I can't accidentally take too much in a day.

HTH...

[Lenore]

Or fill a pill box for the week...that's how I do it.
I don't know where to post this, but I hope you all don't mind me jumping in and posting after lurking here for soooo long. It just took some courage to join in. I kind of feel that I know some of you after all the reading that I've done here. But, of course, I know that you don't know me at all, since I just recently started posting. Anyway, I've learned a lot and I've been helped a lot by this forum. Thank you.

[Cinders]

Lenore,

I was extremely happy when I saw your first post. The more who contribute to these threads, the better.

Knowledge gained from experience shared is invaluable.

Thank you for joining in.

Cindi

[louise]

The side effect that I have had that hasn't been mentioned so far is having to go to the bathroom frequently during the night (twice as much as normal, but fortunately not as frequently as Verita's dog). This is decreasing as I'm on it longer.
Welcome Lenore. Glad you decided to join us.

[Cinders]

Louise,

I have to go twice at night on average.

Baclofen is passed through the kidneys, so I make sure I drink plenty of fluid. Between the Bac and the extra fluid I am drinking, well, trips to the potty are fairly frequent and fairly urgent. Oh, and I am a (ahem) older woman, so that I am sure that doesn't help matters any.

I want to insure I don't hurt my kidneys, so I stay hydrated. I am sure I have done quite enough damage to my poor kidneys with the drinking, I don't want to do more damage with the Baclofen.

Cindi

[Lenore]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Cindi.