Fast Titration Schedule

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

I could get 200 x 25mg via an online pharmacy. Since yesterday I'm at 600mg (4 x 7 tablets). Side effects are not a problem and I will stay at that dose for about 3 weeks then taper down. Hope this times everything works well and I can hit the switch. I will not take naltrexone btw.

[terryk]

Fast Titration Schedule

Hey IWTBS- Are you taking any other medications or supplements that could be interfering with your baclofen efficacy? Some anti-depressants have been mentioned here, Celexa/citalopram for example, as possibly preventing baclofen from working. Also after reaching my switch back in September 2010, I *lost* it for a few days. The only things I could pinpoint that I did differently around then were this (cut and pasted from another post here):

a) I ran out of Allopurinol, the medicine that I take to combat my gout

b) I was drinking many "energy" drinks like RedBull, Monster Hitman, etc. to stay awake.

I'll briefly mention that the lack of Allopurinol would cause a surge of Uric acid in my blood (uric acid is reported to be psychotropic) and the "energy" drinks contain a bunch of chemicals that may counteract baclofen's anti-craving mechanism (inositol is the ingredient that caught my eye:

WikiPedia: "Some preliminary results of studies on high-dose inositol supplements show promising results for people suffering from problems such as bulimia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, and unipolar and bipolar depression.[12][13][14][15]

In a single double-blind study on 13 patients, Myo-inositol has been found to reduce the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) significantly, with effectiveness equal to SSRIs and virtually without side-effects.[16] In a double-blind, controlled trial, myo-inositol was superior to fluvoxamine for decreasing the number of panic attacks and had fewer side-effects.[14]

Patients suffering from clinical depression, in general, have decreased levels of inositol in their cerebrospinal fluid"

Just a shot in the dark, but anything like that strike a chord with your experience?
-tk

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

Hi tk,

thanks for mentioning that! I have already seen your older posts where you wrote about allopurinol & energy drinks and know that some antidepressants seem to cancel out the anti-craving action of baclofen. I take no meds except for Lioresal and just a multi-vitamin + fish-oil. Don't drink coffee in excess.

- Sober

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

Ok, side effects are not a real problem for me even with 600mg / day, but tiredness becomes annoying... no cravings so far.

[Bruunhilde]

Fast Titration Schedule

Thanks IW for your thread, and to everyone who has posted here, it's very helpful, informative.

I like Bleep's advice "chin up, shit happens". For me, I could apply that to many moments of the week, not just an AL indulgence.

[bleep]

Fast Titration Schedule

How long can you stay at your elevated dose for Sober?

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

I thought about 3-4 weeks? If anyone has a better idea / good advice I'm very happy to hear it. My baclofen source is fast and reliable so getting more isn't a problem. Side effects are not a big issue, but 600 is also my personal limit. I am very sensitive when it comes to titrating bac down so staying on that dose as long as necessary and as short as possible is key here.

[bleep]

Fast Titration Schedule

Sober, how's it going? Still at 600mg's?

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

I stayed @600mg for a month, now I'm tapering down half a tablet (12,5mg) a day. No cravings and therefore no alcohol consumption. :-) I'm going to find my maintenance dose now and hope it's not too high.

-Sober

[bleep]

Fast Titration Schedule

Good news indeed, really glad to hear it. Let us know how low you end up managing to get to.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Fast Titration Schedule

Hey, sober!
you've posted some very thought-provoking stuff recently.
I am curious as to how you are and where you are in your bac journey.

To be perfectly honest, I was appalled and dismayed at the thought of any human being subjecting themselves to that much bac. (I think you'd agree that it's just a little nuts! )

You seem to be of a scientific bent, and that is sorely lacking, imho, on the threads these days. How is it that you are gaba-resistant and why is it that you decided that 500-600mgs is a personal cap?

And the guy who went into the coma? What's the back story on that? Why and how did that happen? It goes against everything I understand about bac. It's also very pertinent personally since it looks as though I'm going to be on ~3x the FDA approved amount of bac for a little while.

Hope you're doing well!
Ne

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

I agree it's somewhat nuts to take 600mg baclofen / day, but whatever works I guess. I'm at 450mg at the moment and titrating slowly down. Still no craving for alcohol.

I have an anxiety disorder and had to be treated with high doses of GABAergic drugs. I always needed and tolerated a lot. I could have slowly gone higher than 600mg baclofen, but I didn't have to and never planned taking like 1g daily.

The person with spasms took 80mg bac daily and suffered brain damage during withdrawal and later died. The only case I know of in the end deadly oral baclofen W/D. You can read it here: Status Epilepticus After Baclofen Withdrawal

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Fast Titration Schedule

Hey, sober. I'm really glad that you're doing well. Again, I can't imagine! But as you said, whatever works and I'm pretty sure that I'd do that, too. Maybe. :H

Just to be clear, that article about the guy who had a seizure from bac withdrawal was written in 1984. He died not from bac or from withdrawing from bac, but from an infection.

There is another interesting article about the benefit-risk assessment of treating spasticity patients with bac. What I found relevant was this:


The main adverse effects of oral baclofen include: sedation or somnolence, excessive weakness, vertigo and psychological disturbances. The incidence of adverse effects is reported to range from 10% to 75%. The majority of adverse effects are not severe; most are dose related, transient and/or reversible. The main risks of oral baclofen administration are related to withdrawal: seizures, psychic symptoms and hyperthermia can occur. These symptoms improve after the reintroduction of baclofen, usually without sequelae. When not related to withdrawal; these symptoms mainly present in patients with brain damage and in the elderly.

from this:
A benefit-risk assessment of baclofen in severe sp... [Drug Saf. 2004] - PubMed result

What made me laugh is the last part, "these symptoms mainly present in patients with brain damage and in the elderly." Or those of us that are taking ridiculous amounts of it!!


Thanks for bringing all this to light. It astounds me how much information is available about bac at the touch of a keyboard. Lends itself to a pretty thorough understanding of the safety and efficacy of the medication, that it's been around for so long and is still being used. Not just because it's cheap, either. (like prozac for instance)

I'm planning on printing that out and taking it to my doctor, who won't prescribe bac, so that she understands the ramifications of withdrawal if I do end up in an emergency situation.
Hope you'll keep posting your progress! I'm eager to hear, since I'm on my way bac up in search of everlasting indifference!

Ne

[TracyA]

Fast Titration Schedule

Thanks Sober for the link to the article. There are a couple things that I did notice. To say that the patient's health was compromised before he ever started the baclofen would be a massive understatement. The guy had been terribly ill for more than a decade, already had brain misfiring kinds of stuff, had undergone spinal surgeries that left him quadrilegic, and must have been bedridden for quite some time, because he was admitted for treatment of bed sores. Also, the study proposes that he died of baclofen withdrawal, it does not claim to prove that this was the case.

At any rate, I appreciate the link. It underlines the need for gradual withdrawal of baclofen. Also, 600 mg seems really, really high. Did you wind up that high because you titrated quickly?

[I-want-to-be-sober]

Fast Titration Schedule

@ne:

I don't think an article written in 1984 is worse than one from 2011. Fact is the man suffered status epileptics during oral baclofen withdrawal resulting in severe brain damage and deep coma from which he couldn't be awaked anymore. He died half a year later because of an infection which is a known complication of being in coma for such a long time.

Good points Tracy.

I don't want to talk in my thread about withdrawal complications again, i hope you understand that. Please use the other threads for that.