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At what times do you take baclofen?

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    At what times do you take baclofen?

    Hi Folks,

    Because baclofen has a relatively short half-life (approximately 3 hours as I understand it), I take my baclofen at the following times every day:

    9:00 am (currently 30 mg)
    12:00 pm (currently 20 mg)
    3:00 pm (currently 30 mg)
    6:00 pm (currently 20 mg)
    9:00 pm (currently 20 mg)

    I am aware that one MWO member (Beatle, I think) takes a baclofen dose in the early hours of the morning. As my anxiety is generally at its worst first thing on a morning, it would make sense to also take a dose during the night but I often do not get up during the night and I don't feel inclined to set my alarm clock to awaken me!

    Does my choice of times seem about right?

    Thanks in advance.

    V.
    "Love's the only engine of survival"

    Leonard Cohen

    #2
    At what times do you take baclofen?

    I posted this on another thread:

    I have titrated up very slowly. I felt those side effects -- fogginess, dizzyness, tingling, twitching. I always stopped for a while when they were too much to tolerate, or went down a little and then tried again to go up. In this way, I have worked my way up to 120-40mg/day over several months. I found that if I go slowly the side effects also fade slowly, so I can try going up again. I'm now doing approx. 7:00 20, 10:00 20, 13:00 20, 16:00 20 19:00 20, 22:00 20 -- plus I usually take 20 in the middle of the night, around 3-4 a.m. (or whenever I wake to empty my bladder).
    Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

    Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Adress, 2005

    Comment


      #3
      At what times do you take baclofen?

      Hi Virgil glad to see you are still with us and sticking with it. I know that bac has the half life ect, but I beleive that it is also quietly rewiring our brains thats why once you reach the switch you can tirate down to a smaller dose. So my suggestion would be that you perhaps take a another dose as late as you can maybe around 12 oclock or whenereve you go to bed as your schedule shows you are taking regular doese during the day and then a 12hour break. As I say this is my opioion not based on medical facts by my own expeience of taking the stuff. Good luck to you

      Comment


        #4
        At what times do you take baclofen?

        Hey, Virgil

        Please remember that its short half-life literally means that only half of it is eliminated after 3 - 4 hours. The rest is still in your system and doing its job, so you can consider longer intervals in between your doses. Also: bac is metabolised by the kidneys. As I understand it, the better your kidney function, the faster you're likely to eliminate it. As Bill.P speculated: I probably had to go that high (240mg) because I'm a "prolific p!sser" (his words, not mine :H ).

        As BH says, bac seems to have a cumulative effect over time. Both in terms of increasing indifference towards alcohol and the "re-wiring" concept. That does not imply that I believe bac offers a permanent cure for alcoholism. That remains to be proven. Even after 5 months sober, I know for a fact I will start drinking again if I stop taking bac.

        But that doesn't answer your original question

        My bac doses:

        50mg around 1.00 p.m.
        50mg around 4.30 p.m.

        Use of p.r.n. doses:

        20mg if I am feeling somewhat anxious at night and can't sleep.
        20mg if I feel the onset of bad cravings early evening (6.00 - 8.00 p.m.)

        My doses coincide with the times that I generally experience the onset of cravings (or mild anxiety).

        Could the same possibly apply to your anxiety? There is a full 12-hour gap between your last evening dose and the 1st morning one. To get the full anti-anxiety benefit of bac, it might work better if you can close the gap to maybe 8 hours. (Surely you don't sleep for 12 hours?). Also think about taking a larger dose before bed. Considering you don't generally wake up in the middle of the night to "empty your bladder" as Beatle so nicely put it, the bac should remain in your system. E.g. last dose of 30 - 40 at around 10.00 p.m., and your normal morning dose at 6.00 a.m. or as soon as possible thereafter? Just thinking out loud, of course
        I'll do whatever it takes
        AF 21/08/2009

        Comment


          #5
          At what times do you take baclofen?

          I haven't settled on a maintenance dose yet but currently I've been doing fine with 0 cravings for a few days at 200mg 1xday at 2pm. I'll update the dosage poll thread when I get a regular routine.

          I'll let you guys know if this continues to work for me too as it is rather convenient. I can't imagine why it wouldn't. I've been fine for weeks at 100mg @ like 1pm and 3pm.

          It doesn't make me sleepy at all anymore and taking it a 2pm it affects my sleep less. It was making me an insomniac.
          :nutso: I take pride in my humility :nutso:
          :what?:
          sigpic
          Graph of My Drinking From July '09 to January '10

          Consolidated Baclofen Information Thread




          Baclofen for Alcoholism and Other Addictions
          A Forum
          Trolls need not apply

          Comment


            #6
            At what times do you take baclofen?

            LoOp-- you can take 200mg all at once???

            Wow. Most I can handle at once without turning into a nauseous zombie is 50mg.

            I posted this on a different thread but I don't take bac consistently throughout the day. Someone responded that this was really dangerous but others didn't think it was a problem. It hasn't been a problem for me so whatever.

            Right now (and this has changed a lot over the last 6 months), on most days I take 50mg with my first meal of the day, which is sometimes breakfast, sometimes isn't but is always before noon (if I don't take my bac w/ food I get nauseous)

            Then I take another 50mg the next time I eat (usually around 2-3pm), then another 25-50mg around dinner time (anywhere between 5 and 10pm).

            Unfortunately I have pretty variable reactions to bac--sometimes I have no side effects and other times I get really nauseous and utterly exhausted. So if it's one of "those days" (when I'm more vulnerable to the side effects) then I'll end up taking around ~50mg at different points throughout the day. And inevitably those are the days when I end up drinking or drinking a lot more than I would like to. But there are just a lot of days when going home from work b/c I'm nauseous (and it SUCKS--I usually end up vomiting) or totally out of it just isn't an option.

            Comment


              #7
              At what times do you take baclofen?

              Anna B;793161 wrote: LoOp-- you can take 200mg all at once???
              Yeah. It doesn't even phase me either. No side effects at all.
              :nutso: I take pride in my humility :nutso:
              :what?:
              sigpic
              Graph of My Drinking From July '09 to January '10

              Consolidated Baclofen Information Thread




              Baclofen for Alcoholism and Other Addictions
              A Forum
              Trolls need not apply

              Comment


                #8
                At what times do you take baclofen?

                Lo0p;793188 wrote: Yeah. It doesn't even phase me either. No side effects at all.
                That is amazing. When I went up to 20mg at a time (instead of 10mg at a time) I could physically feel it "kick in" -- a sudden buzz, uneasiness, dizziness -- very tangible and disconcerting effects (but it is also reassuring because I know the bac is working!). But 200mg at a time? Also, even though I have been doing 20mg at a time for 2 weeks now, I still get the same effect every time. That's why I spread them out.
                Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

                Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Adress, 2005

                Comment


                  #9
                  At what times do you take baclofen?

                  Hi Folks,

                  Thanks for all the valuable feedback.

                  Based on your comments, I'm going to try the following daily schedule:

                  8:00 am (30 mg)
                  12:00 pm (20 mg)
                  4:00 pm (20 mg)
                  8:00 pm (20 mg)
                  11:00 pm (30 mg)

                  Unlike Bill.P, my visits to the toilet are infrequent so perhaps the baclofen will stay in my system a bit longer. I doubt it - but I'll hold on to the thought!

                  Thanks again.

                  V.
                  "Love's the only engine of survival"

                  Leonard Cohen

                  Comment


                    #10
                    At what times do you take baclofen?

                    Oh, and Anna, I also think 50mg at a time sounds like an incomprehensibly high amount. I wonder if you take smaller doses spread out, then maybe you won't get so nauseous.

                    Also, I don't get nauseous from bac at all (maybe the only side effect I HAVEN"T had from bacuch, and in fact, I prefer to take it between meals because it seems to take effect faster and I can feel it more.
                    Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

                    Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Adress, 2005

                    Comment


                      #11
                      At what times do you take baclofen?

                      Sounds good, Virgil

                      Let us know how it goes.
                      I'll do whatever it takes
                      AF 21/08/2009

                      Comment


                        #12
                        At what times do you take baclofen?

                        beatle;793266 wrote: Oh, and Anna, I also think 50mg at a time sounds like an incomprehensibly high amount. I wonder if you take smaller doses spread out, then maybe you won't get so nauseous.
                        Hey, Beatle

                        Not really, once your side-effects have abated over time. I weigh 26kg more than you do (so you can do the math) and until little over a week ago, I was taking 120mg in 2 x 60mg doses, more or less 4 hours apart.

                        But I guess its the old refrain: we're all different and are reacting differently.

                        As my friends on the NDT are fond of saying: what an embuggerance Predictability would make things so much easier.
                        I'll do whatever it takes
                        AF 21/08/2009

                        Comment


                          #13
                          At what times do you take baclofen?

                          Me again!

                          It's interesting that some people take baclofen at meal times. Currently, none of the baclofen that I take corresponds with my meal times. And, with my new proposed schedule, it probably will not change. The exception may well be at 11:00 pm when I sometimes have a very light snack before 'climbing that wooden hill' (i.e. going upstairs to bed).

                          V.
                          "Love's the only engine of survival"

                          Leonard Cohen

                          Comment


                            #14
                            At what times do you take baclofen?

                            im curious guys, say I took a baflocen around 7 am and just happened to forget my doses for the day, that would mean say i drank that night around 10 pm-
                            when wouild withdrawels from baflocen start 13 hours later? could something happen serious from being off of it for 13 hours and would it have no effect on my drinking at 10?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              At what times do you take baclofen?

                              Time4Change1;794431 wrote: im curious guys, say I took a baflocen around 7 am and just happened to forget my doses for the day, that would mean say i drank that night around 10 pm-
                              when wouild withdrawels from baflocen start 13 hours later? could something happen serious from being off of it for 13 hours and would it have no effect on my drinking at 10?
                              Hi T4C,

                              Unfortunately, I'm still new to baclofen. So, I am unable to answer your question but perhaps some of the more experienced MWO members will get back to you.

                              V.
                              "Love's the only engine of survival"

                              Leonard Cohen

                              Comment

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