Hi Amanda,

I do take 5mg of Baclofen daily, and at first I had a small amount of dizziness, and tiredness, but I also take Mobic which can cause the same thing, so not sure what one was the cause!! But, it only lasted a week or so, then was gone, so as your body adjusts, it lessens. I works great for me. It is a true muscle relaxant. I have not tried topomax, and I am not familar with that drug. Also, if you do go on Baclofen, remember, it is a drug that you cannot stop abruptly, you have to wean off it slowly.

Hope this helps. Baclofen has side effects as most drugs do, it all depends on the person. Why does your Dr. want you to take it? And how big a dose? sweetpotatoe57

Your doctor needs to start you at a much lower dose than he has you currently on. 60 mg of baclofen a day is a lot of baclofen. It is supposed to be started at a 5 mg dose and then slowly tapered up to the dose that your doctor recommends.
I was on it for the last couple of years at 45 mg a day and that is way too much for most people on it.
A dose of 60 mg a day is almost unheard of unless you are a tetra or a parapeligic.
Too much baclofen will make you tired and drowsy, may make it so that your muscles don't function correctly meaning that you may not be able to hold yourself upright....
I would call your doctor back and tell him that you believe he has you on too much of it.

and have taken Topomax in the past. The Topomax did not agree with me at all. I was a mental basket case on it. Could barely think straight enough to spell my own name on it. Also made me very mean. It was odd but my sister was on it at the same time that I was. She had the exact same side effects from it. We jokingly refer to it as Dopomax now. That being said, I have seen plenty of people here that have had good results and none of those side effects. Just goes to show how different we all can be. I do take baclofen but only 30 mgs a day and that is only when I am having spasms so I may not be the best judge of that.

I'm taking baclofen and the starting dose over here (UK) is generally 15mg/day, so 60mg is a massive, massive dose! It is a skeletal muscle relaxant and causes general lethargy, dizziness and interferes with the ability to concentrate (all of which I've had!).

When I was admitted to hospital recently, they forgot to give me baclofen (I was on 80mg/day) and it caused hallucinations (auditory and visual). It should be given with care and if you're taking anything else, like a tricyclic antidepressant (an awful lot are tricyclics), it produces severe adverse interactions.

If you do stop taking it, please reduce slowly. I was advised to reduce it at 5mg/week, but do check with your own doctor first.

Bye, Val

I also tried topomax at one point, in addition to the baclofen that I was on....I was started at 100 mg , which is never supposed to happen, I know now, but at the time, I was taking 100 mg a day, then quickly moved up to 100 mg three times a day. I dropped 40 lbs in less than a month. It was great for weight loss but killed off my appetite completely so that I had to force a spoonful of food into myself and felt full afterward.....
So, all doctors can make mistakes, and we have to be careful with any new medication and confirm the dosages with the pharmacists, the print offs that come with the medication and our doctors.
Sandi

I am very sensitive to most meds and tolerated Soma very well. I think that Baclofen is much stronger than Soma. One of my docs told me that Baclofen is a true muscle relaxer and Soma is not.

I take baclofen for muscle spasticity (stiffness), total of 60mg per day (20mg 3 times a day). No side effects for me to speak of, although I do feel tired, but who knows which of the many drugs (or the combination of all of them) is causing that! It does help with stiffness, no doubt about it.
Jay

To Manalerie: baclofen can cause an inability to concentrate, but as far as I'm aware, it doesn't induce 'sudden amnesia'.

To further elaborate, baclofen can interact with other drugs to produce adverse interactions, especially the tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline (Elavil) , often used as an adjuvant or first-line of attack with pain. They're known as 'dirty drugs' because although they were developed as anti-depressants, it was discovered that they also produce other effects, including to help control pain.

I was taking baclofen and noticed NOTHING.. very disappointed since it was one of the muscle relaxers I read about that was supposed to be worth trying.. I have tried damn near all of them and soma works the best for me but sometimes I think I get use to it and ask to try something new every 4-5 months the methocarbamol was useless and made me feel like I had the flu!

To iou4usb,

Yes, you're right; you can get used to Soma, so it can lose its effectiveness over time. Changing from one to another is one of the ways in which to counteract this effect.

One of the advantages of using Baclofen is that is doesn't lose its effectiveness with prolonged use so perhaps if the dose was adjusted, it might work better for you. On the flip side, Baclofen can produce nasty side-effects when combined with certain drugs, but then so can Soma.

Swings and roundabouts!

Val