Baclofen reactions

[craving]

Has anyone of you experienced this?

- Baclofen has caused me euphoria - hypomania on several occasions. This goes from the already known insomnia effect to being really active and working 20 hours a day (happened to me on high dose). The Euphoria and hypomania is still noticeable to me on increasing the dose. Everytime I do so, I get first relaxed and later on feel hyperactive.

- Everytime I am taking an extra dose to my normal day-to-day dose strange things happen. for example I take 25mg extra, first reaction is that I get more relaxed, feel less bordered by the world, have less worries. Days after this seems to have brought me out of balance and I start to get psychosis with having moments where I am not myself. Consequences appear unreal to me, fear is increased - very very odd moments. I do not have these moments normally, but I can produce them by adding an additional dose of Baclofen.

I am currently at 37.5mg Baclofen a day - AF since 125 days. Main problems I have with my life now is fear/anxiety which probably Baclofen can deal with if I up it again to 60-70mg. But considering that Baclofen is having such odd psychological effects on me, I probably should try to reduce it down to further instead of increasing it.

If I would ever increase Baclofen again, I would only do so by combining it with Valproic acid which is used against (acute) mania. To compensate somehow the effect of Baclofen a bit.


Has anyone else seen effects on their psychological abilities through Baclofen?

[FallonsMom]

Baclofen reactions

No I'm sorry I can't say that I am and I'm 40 mg

[corkit]

Baclofen reactions

Hi craving, yes I've experienced being paranoid and fearful lately with no reason to be feeling this way, so I'm attributing it to being on high dosage bac that's causing it. Craving why are you upping the dose seeing you've been 125 days AF? Just wondering.

[craving]

Baclofen reactions

I have no cravings anymore, and I am down from 300mg a day to just 37.5mg a day. But I have anxiety/fear.

I think for my alcohol issue I can reduce Baclofen further. But I was thinking that my anxiety/fear will reduce again if I up the dose.

So I am considering this only for anxiety/fear and not for alcohol combating.

I think afterall Baclofen is much less serious than anything a shrink can give me against anxiety/fear!
I do not want to take any Antidepressivas again!

[KTB]

Baclofen reactions

Hello, Craving. I am on 90 mg Bac, and have had no real side effects, except I wake up every day at 3:00 or 3:30 a.m., but I have had problems with sleeping for a very long time. Today, I will up the dose to 100. I am still craving and drinking, but much less than before. For the first time in years, I feel hope. Your story and that of many others has helped me tremendously. I loaned Dr. A's book to my doctor; he is very excited about the prospect of a cure for his many alcoholic patients. I am the guinea pig. His attitude is whatever works for me is better than the alternative. I, like Dr. A, have broken many bones and suffered several other injuries, with no memory of how they happened (guess that's a blessing). Even if I do develop SE's, I will persevere. Best of luck to you.

[craving]

Baclofen reactions

KTB, the insomnia effect is very normal on Baclofen, it happens to me also on dosing up, and can be quite anoying. I had a period where I would wake up each day at 3 am with light flashes in my eyes and start to work until going to bed at 12pm again! If you read up on bipolar disorder you will see that this behavior is called "mania" or at least hypomania. I was even feeling fresh with this low amount of sleep.

That is clearly something that Baclofen has done to me. For now I sleep my 8 hours which I really prefer than just sleeping 3 hours.

[KTB]

Baclofen reactions

Can't even imagine 8 hrs of sleep. Hoping I will get there. Also, I have no appetite; have to force myself to eat.

[craving]

Baclofen reactions

KTB;864590 wrote: Can't even imagine 8 hrs of sleep. Hoping I will get there. Also, I have no appetite; have to force myself to eat.

ask your doctor if he could prescribe you any drug used against bipolar mania - i.e. Valproic acid which has few side effects and does not have any addiction potential. Valproic acid is used for ages for long-term treatment of epilepsy, and can be used against (acute) mania off-label.

It will resolve the mania that Baclofen is creating on you - and you will start to sleep normal again.

[terryk]

Baclofen reactions

Hello Craving,

I've been lurking here for a while and figured that now would be a good time join in the dialog. I think I stumbled on to this site through a random web search that returned some of your postings and baclofen/alcohol graphs a few months ago. Your success helped inspire me to start on Baclofen (40 days, I'm up to 120mg, US prescription 10mg plus 25mg Fexobac from 4Rx.com-no switch yet). Baclofen has impacted my short term memory and ability to organize my thoughts and actions efficiently (I'm having some difficulty just getting my ideas out succinctly in this post). I have had euphoria and manic episodes (also paranoia) on a few occasions (in only 40 days) and it's been difficult and disconcerting. I really can't say that I've had a history of mania before starting the baclofen. I struggled with anxiety and insomnia for years and years. Baclofen has helped the anxiety, and with different dosages, decreased then increased the insomnia. I take 25mg of benadryl (diphenhydramine) and that lets me sleep through the night (otherwise it's up at 3 am) I've resigned myself to a very slow titratation schedule (5mg every 3-5 days) and things seem to level off if I stick with it. While the anxiety (and panic that sometimes came with it) has gone, I have a new ability to worry and feel a low level fear about things that haven't bothered me in the past. I have a bunch more information and experiences to relate, as well as questions, but my mind feels a bit jumbled and I'll leave it at that. The good news is that I've been inspired by many of the success stories on this board and I'm determined to stick it out until it works. -tk

[craving]

Baclofen reactions

terry,

thanks for joining the dialog!

Very odd that you have the insomnia effect although you are tirtrating this slow up! I was very sensitive to reducing the dose and did so only 2.5mg every 5th day.

Now I am up today +15mg trying to deal with anxiety. In the morning I felt a bit euphoric/mania, but that went away very fast, as I am taking at the same time now 1500mg valproic acid to deal with the mania.

I had very often Mania/Euphoria and it is not good - neither is the sleep-less period. A shrink without knowing that you take Baclofen would diagnose a bipolar disorder and provide you with mood stabilizers.

my short term memory was not effected - but you say you have problems organizing your thoughts, this sounds to me like a disturbition of thoughts - which I have in the form of psychosis.

please take care with the sleeping aid, they should not be taken daily!

are you drinking meanwhile taking baclofen?

[tto99]

Baclofen reactions

In my previous post I described my case of euphoria and mania . I think it must be very common symptom with high dose bac.
I didn't have fear and I wasn't paranoid while taking it. But as soon as I lowered my dose I started to fee a bit unsure of myself, etc.
I think Craving, what you describe is 100% withdrawal symptoms. You went from high dose to low dose too soon.

[terryk]

Baclofen reactions

Lets see.... Before starting baclofen, I had been using benadryl (diphenhydramine) 50mg/night every night for insomnia when I was drinking and during periods of abstinence. It worked wonders. I slept all night 6-8 hours, and woke up refreshed (no drugged out fuzziness). I tapered off the benadryl when I started the baclofen and at first experienced somnolence and long restful sleep. As I titrated up, I still had some somnolence and restful sleep, but the duration decreased to about 4 hours per night. I woke up feeling fine and refreshed (I had read here about others with similar experiences), but was a little wary about it catching up to me (inability to sleep night after night is the hallmark of trouble when I'm having a bad drinking episode - drinking just to fall asleep then waking up after less and less sleep, and then finally no sleep at all and total implosion) so I added the benadryl and it seems to work for me. There's probably some degree of dependency, but the dose at which it is effective hasn't changed for me too much in many years, and I don't think that it's depressing my respiration much if at all (earlier in my titration, I did feel that I was breathing quite shallowly often even without the benadryl).

As far as drinking goes, I had been abstinent for several months after a particularly bad stint in detox (my 2nd). When I ordered my baclofen I gave in to cravings and have been sneaking drinks here and there occasionally, though not daily and still under control (for now, and maybe I am fooling myself). I know that others on this board have continued to drink while taking baclofen, and I have to admit, that for me, 2 or 3 beers has helped me through some of the bad episodes of side effects that I've had. Once again I feel that I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts and it may take several roundabout posts to "fill in the blanks" about what my experience has been like. -tk

[craving]

Baclofen reactions

i reduced the dose of Baclofen first fast, but then I did it very slow. very often in the range of 10mg every 4th day - and for the steps below 100mg only 2.5mg every 5th day - so very slow. I doubt that this is too fast - but it could be withdrawal yes!

I think previously my craving was hiding other problems. Instead of my body telling me fear/anxiety, it told me, take alcohol. So now the real problem shows its face, and I hope that by increasing Baclofen.

It always comes down to the same problem. Is the problem related to Baclofen - or is it something that alcohol was hiding - or a damage that alcohol has left?

I never tried diphenhydramine - but I am suprised that you do not need to increase the dose, as usually antihistamins would loose their sleep inducing function with the time. If it works for you its great.

On high dose of Baclofen I was feeling sometimes like I could not get enough air, and by making a little film of myself meanwhile sleeping I could see why I woke up - it was because I was not breathing for 20-30 seconds! For me Baclofen in high dose can produce increased sleep apnoe.

[Greg]

Baclofen reactions

Does anyone here know why insomnia could be a serious side effect of baclofen in people who don't have mania or hypomania? It seems an odd thing to happen with a drug that otherwise has sedative properties. In my case the insomnia has never been due to alcohol or any other drugs.

[craving]

Baclofen reactions

I never had mania or hypomania but Baclofen created that for me. Together with Euphoria.

If you read up on bipolar disorder you will find this sentence : "patient feels well rested with 3 hours sleep"

Although this mania is induced by Baclofen (and does stop again when you stop/reduce Baclofen), I think it still requires treatment if it stays too much time.

For now I am fine with my sleep and the Baclofen increase I have done yesterday seems fine so far. (but I combined it with an anti-mania drug - so could be also that).