Table of Contents
- What Are Muscle Relaxers?
- What Do Muscle Relaxers Help Treat?
- What Are the Side Effects of Muscle Relaxers?
- Are Muscle Relaxers Addictive?
- Follow the Doctor’s Orders
When experiencing muscle pain, your doctor may prescribe one of the muscle relaxers to decrease muscle tension or muscle spasms. There are various types of muscle relaxers, with some interacting with the central nervous system (CNS) and others affecting the spinal cord or brain. Muscle relaxers are potent medications that may have side effects and could be addictive, so most people take them for a short period.
What Are Muscle Relaxers?
Spasms are usually called muscle cramps and can occur in skeletal muscles like the leg, feet, arms, thighs and abdomen. They also may occur in smooth muscle, like those in the gastrointestinal system. Most spasms are due to a muscle sprain, injury or nerve compression. Other common causes are dehydration, excessive high-intensity exercise, electrolyte imbalance, fibromyalgia, sciatica, low back pain and other spinal conditions.
Spasticity is different from spasms. Spasticity is the result of overactivity in muscles due to damage to the spinal cord or brain, motor nerves or spinal cord from diseases and conditions like cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injury, or traumatic brain injury. Muscle movement patterns are disrupted, causing prolonged, painful muscle contractions, commonly in leg muscles.
Muscle relaxers are medicines that offer short-term relief from acute and chronic muscle pain. The term “muscle relaxer” includes a wide range of drugs, but most fall within one of two categories of skeletal muscle relaxants.
Antispasmodic medicines
These medicines decrease muscle spasms, which are sudden, forceful, involuntary muscle contractions that cause sharp pain. They are mainly prescribed for skeletal muscle conditions. Each medicine in this group is a common muscle relaxer for back pain, significantly lower back pain and other persistent spasms caused by muscle injury.
Antispasmodics can be benzodiazepines or non-benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines work by depressing the central nervous system (CNS) and are typically prescribed short-term. Non-benzodiazepines, also called “Z drugs, have a different structure than benzodiazepines, but they also decrease muscle spasms through their interaction with the CNS. However, they have fewer potential side effects due to the structural differences.
Antispasticity medicines
Antispasticity muscle relaxers act directly on the skeletal muscles or spinal cord. They are used to treat multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. Some medications also address conditions of the smooth and skeletal muscles.
What Do Muscle Relaxers Help Treat?
Muscle relaxers are used to treat a variety of health issues. They include the following.
- Fibromyalgia
- Sciatica
- Low back pain
- Neck pain
- Tension headaches
- Myofascial pain syndrome
- Multiple sclerosis
- Motor neurone disease
- Cerebral palsy
- Parkinson’s disease
- Seizure disorders like epilepsy
- Alcohol withdrawal
Antispasmodic medications are not usually the first-line treatment for spasms or pain. They are prescribed when other therapies have not helped.
What Are the Side Effects of Muscle Relaxers?
What do muscle relaxers feel like? Some of the common side effects of muscle relaxers include:
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Irritability
- Agitation
- Headache
- Nervousness
- Dry mouth
- Decreased blood pressure
- Constipation
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Blurred vision
Drowsiness, dizziness and dry mouth are usually experienced by most people who take muscle relaxers. Uncommonly, serious side effects may occur, like difficulty breathing, liver damage, seizures, abnormal heart rhythm, serotonin syndrome or dependency.
There are many different muscle relaxers, so it may be necessary to try more than one to find the medication with the fewest side effects. Muscle relaxers are usually not recommended for people 65 or older because they may slow down the central nervous system, increasing the risk of drowsiness and gait disturbances.
Are Muscle Relaxers Addictive?
Long-term use of some muscle relaxers can lead to addiction. This is why they are usually only prescribed for a short period. Researchers have found that the long-term use of muscle relaxers may help patients experiencing painful spasms and neck pain, but using muscle relaxers in the long term is not as effective for people with lower back pain, headaches, and fibromyalgia. Instead, short-term use is recommended. Patients work closely with their doctors to monitor muscle relaxers’ side effects and efficacy.
Follow the Doctor’s Orders
When using muscle relaxers, it’s crucial to adhere to your pain doctor’s instructions. These medications are potent, and their misuse can lead to serious consequences. It is important not to mix them with alcohol or certain drugs and never to stop taking them suddenly, as this can trigger severe withdrawal symptoms like vomiting. Muscle relaxers are beneficial but only when used appropriately.
Sources
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15466-muscle-spasms
- https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/spasticity
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6464310/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/nonbenzodiazepine
- https://americanaddictioncenters.org/prescription-drugs/side-effects-of-muscle-relaxers
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39298168/