Can baclofen cause depresion ?

[Brave Hearted]

Just read a thread where somebody mentioned baclofen and depresion , can it cause it. I have been on it 4 months tirated up hit the switch and down to 50 or so mg a day but for the last couple of weeks I feel lower than a rattle snakes belly ???? could the baclofen be causing it . As I have said on other posts got some personal stuff going on as well but I feel awful. I am on ani depressants might up the dose a bit and see if it makes a differance ! Thoughts and advice please !

[Bill.P.]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

My favorite medical professor used to answer questions like this one with "Always, sometimes, never"
The confluence of brain chemistry and the diagnosis of clinical depression is such an exhausting topic and it is very personal.
Having been a cognitive depression researcher as an undergrad, understanding why people get depressed is the question of the ages and yeah, people will get depressed on baclofen just as they get depressed having never heard of baclofen. THere really is no way to answer your question.
Baclofen does limit the reward center of the brain, so if food or alcohol or sex makes you happy and avoid depression, those will be dulled and you will need to fill that void with something else.
I chose going to the gym to replace hours of inebriation that caused more depression than baclofen.
So its all about what you do with it,I can pretty much guarantee that if you workout for 90 minutes a day 6 days a week you wont even think about depression cuz it wont happen.
But baclofen does cause somnolence but easily fixed with getting moving

Depression is such a huge topic with an intertwining of lifestyle, goal settings, life events etc... that, at least when I researched it to try and ferret what causes it. There still was not a clear answer. It would be nice to be able to point a finger at it, that happens in cardiac medicine easily with betablockers which block adrenaline and make people feel puny, but not so sure with baclofen. In theory, baclofen prevents depression b/c it blocks you from drinking a depressant ie alcohol.
But everyone is different

[Brave Hearted]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Thank you for that detailed reply Bill looks like I need to hit the gym, funnily enough as you would have been typing your reply a friend was on the phone singing the praises of a great new gym she has joined. I will sign up next week and keep you posted. And once again another superb answer from your good self ! ty very much and I totally agree the way I feel is nothing compared to the al induced depression that followed my many drinking sessions over even more years !

[Bill.P.]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Brave Hearted;765775 wrote: Thank you for that detailed reply Bill looks like I need to hit the gym, funnily enough as you would have been typing your reply a friend was on the phone singing the praises of a great new gym she has joined. I will sign up next week and keep you posted. And once again another superb answer from your good self ! ty very much and I totally agree the way I feel is nothing compared to the al induced depression that followed my many drinking sessions over even more years !

Ahh, so it was fate that your friend called you up!
Six months from now, if you start an exercise program, you will come back and be amazed. And not the 3 times a week 30 minutes stuff.
An hour minimum, six days a week. I know having told many people to shoot for the stars and rearrange their lifestyle and have that as the MOST important thing to accomplish. That six months later about 25% actually followed my advice and they are doing fantastic. I mean dancing from the ceiling type stuff.
I had one lady who went on a treadmill test about a minute and a half. Pathetic. I gave her a stern lecture on the fact how out of shape she was that she probably wouldnt even survive general anesthesia if she had a medical emergency and how it directly correlated with increased mortality and morbidity being that much of a couch potato.
1 year later, I put her on the tread mill again and she went nearly 10 minutes, had lost over 50 pounds and felt great and hugged me.
I mean it is just that simple, 90 minutes a day until you are at ideal body weight then just an hour a day and you can eat much more and never be depressed, Ever!

[Lo0p]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Exercise makes an enormous difference for me.

[cowgal]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

wonder too!

I have been feeling down lately, but probably the holidays, drunk ass husband who doesn't care, etc............... I agree, they gym DOES help, and I have been lacking in that dept lately...............gotta get back to get those endorphins going again!!!! I thought for a while bac was making me feel better, thought about going off welbutrin, but thank GOD I still have a full bottle of that, cuz, I really need it now...............good luck, love, MA:l:h

[Bill.P.]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

xxxxxxxxxxx

[Brave Hearted]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

good advice as always Bill, I really have no excuse I turned my spare room in to a mini gym got all the equipment there. I am not over wieght so that is not an issue, but i am generally unfit think I will do like I did with bac start low and tirate up , I would be carried out in a box if I did 90 minutes in the gym but its certainly something to aim for. Thae hardest part is getting started they way I feel at the moment I totally lack motivation, i know thats no excuse ! WIll give it my best shot and good excuse to guy the gear lol

[Brave Hearted]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Sorry you are not feeling good cowgirl, its horrible and just re-read your reply Bill can only imagine 6 months from now whow sober fit as and feeling great, this time last year all that would have been like imagining winning the lottery just to be sober the resy would be an absolute bonus ! once again whow

[individualnz]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Hi there,

For myself, Bac seemed to exacerbate a chronic depression, I was on anti depressants, low dose for quite sometime. I discovered the Bac and began using it very carefully at slow titration schedule, I admit I also had personal issues going on at the time, and it is hard to distingish which was the culprit (or maybe both) but I spiraled into a major depression. I felt a change mentally after taking the Bac after about a week. I managed to titrate up to 80 at which point I was a mess and had to come off quickly. I have always kept fit, and often do events such as Triatlons, half mara thon etc, I agree fitness and exercise certainly does help, but in my case Bac definately had something to do with mood changes, less anxiety but more depression. I had to see a psychiatrist and have huge amounts of medications to counteract the depression, and even though the Bac is long out of my system, I am still not 100%. The psyc says it is ofen the case that things dont necessarily come right once one stops taking the medication, and often takes further medicianl input to bring your mood back to median

Makes no sense to me, and I dont want to believe it was the bac because it gave me such hope, but for now I am reluctant to give it another go. Brave hearted, you have titrated right up and have come out the other side and it is only now you are feeling flat, so maybe in your case it is the personal issues that are playing havoc on your mood. Exercise is fab for that. Keep trucking on you have come a long way, so well done that is a awesome achievement.

That is only my experience, an adverse reaction really, but I wish I could join the many,many others who have had great success with endless endurance in this mammoth battle we face.

regards indiv NZ

[brightlite]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Brave,

I'm not a Doctor..nor claim to be, however my experience is this:

I tapered up on BAC...I might as well of been drinking AL. The fact of the matter is....and I hope everyone with more documented information chimes in...is that it affects the GABA B which is the same trigger (for lack of a better word) that Alcohol affects. I tapered up and could not handle the effects. In other words I think that I dosed myself up more than even my alcoholic brain can handle. As in, I was (experiencing the effects on BAC as if I was drinking more than I usualy do)

In my experience, the only thing that has worked is excercise. Excercise is good and the key to success. Just remember Sweat is the fountain of youth! Ha!

[Brave Hearted]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Hi thank you for all your replies it makes very interesting reading. I do have a lot of personal issues going on, so like you indi its hard to distinguish which is the cause. I have increased the dose of anit depressants I am on and that seems to have helped, for me stopping the bac is not an option i seem to tollerate it well although I had some bad days when tirating up, did it a bit to fast on a couple of occasions and ended up having to take to my bed and like you brite on those days felt far worse than I did drinking but I think I had given myself an overdose of bac. I now feel I know my own bodys reaction to bac and dose accordingly. Seems the big push here as Bill and others say is exercise ! Please anybody feel free to disagree please ???? as I hate exercise but am going to bite the bullet and have a go cant realistically see me getting to 90 mins 6 days a week, but anythgn has got tobe better than nothing and having set myself so many goals in the past around al and failing which set my depression on a downward spiral I am now very cautious of setting goals that I feel I will not meet, not good for my mojo lol what ever that is !

[reneesmiles]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

I haven't noticed any increased depression because of the Bac. I have clinical depression anyway and my doctor put me on a mood stabilizer a while back and that is helping my depression and panic attacks tremendously. I usually feel down during the holidays anyway, and lately I have been more down, but not seriously depressed. I had really bad side effects when I first started Bac (I started at 10mg. 3x/day). My doctor decreased my dosage to 5mg. 3x/day and I felt better. Started having more cravings so he bumped me back up to 10mg 3x/day. I think I have to titrate up very slowly because I seem to be pretty sensitive to the Bac. However, just being on the 30mg a day is helping me tremendously to be AF. I attempted to drink a glass of wine last night, and I felt like I was going to puke and my head started pounding. I ended up pouring it out. I'm not a doctor, but maybe you titrated up more than you need to at his point. Maybe lower your dose, exercise and see if that makes a difference in your mood???

[ThirdMan]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

Every once in a while I wonder if the Bac doesn't make me feel a little Prozac-ed out, does anyone else get this? Bac has been the only way I could have possible made it through Thanksgiving and gone 3 months now completely AF, though, so I don't mind it THAT much of course. I consider it a miracle drug, and sometimes I wonder if I wasn't just totally amped from all the unwanted anxiety I used to have. I had chronic, horrible panic attacks when I was in college years ago, but I still think I had (have still somewhat) general anxiety that was a major contributor to my drinking. The only downside is that without the anxiety I feel a little less inclined to jump on projects like I used to. Which can also have its good side, because before I was almost scattered, bouncing from one thing to the next and never finishing what I started. Now I feel more even keel, but possibly less motivated, and more inclined to say "f*ck it..." Does anyone know what I mean. Not BAD, necessarily, but somewhat Prozac-y? And to some degree, not sure if it's the bac or the sobriety, but with less anxiety also comes less inclination to get excited. Anyone else get this?

[Spectra]

Can baclofen cause depresion ?

I've felt thoroughly depressed the last few day's. I wonder if it could be waking from a long term alcoholic stupor and realising the opportunities I've wasted and the mess that I'm in?