Soma Versus Baclofen (Page 3)
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I was recently switched from soma to baclofen. The Baclofen makes me feel very strange and I cannot function as well on it as I can with Soma. It makes me sleepy, and frankly just makes me feel like crap. The Soma works better for me as far as muscle spasms. The Baclofen does help spinal pain but does not work as quickly as Soma on spasms. My doctors in Alabama refuse to prescribe me Soma even though I have been put on different muscke rekaxers, Soma works best with my body. Why will doctors nor prescribe what works best for the individual. Every thing works different on different people. I want to be able to function and not be a zombie. What should I do. My pain clinic doctor only wants to get meds from him, but if he wont prescribe what works, I will get my pain meds from him and soma from another doctor. It would make it easier if he would just prescribe the soma. It works for me. I also have anxiety problems which the baclofen seems to make worse.

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I don't see the laws that say it can't be prescribed? It could be your doctor or group policy?

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One thing I forgot to mention is that I'm in Alabama also. My doctor told me over a year ago, that if I had suggested Soma just 3 months prior, he would have given it to me in a minute, but Alabama now has laws that doctors cannot prescribe Soma. REALLY????? That's crazy, cause like I said, it's the stiffness that's causing me the worst pain and it lasts most of the day too.

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Great post Mark!

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Yeah your doctor is an i****. he is prescribing an opiate pain killer which is a schedule 3 drug meaning it has moderate to high potential for abuse and completely ignoring the root of the problem; a problem that seems can be solved with muscle relaxers. I don't understand his logic, see I worked at a retail pharmacy chain and would see so many addicts on Norco Lortabs and Oxycontin all powerful opiate painkillers. Soma at that time was unscheduled meaning it was thought to have no recreational value or capability of causing physical dependence. Then in 2012 the DEA changed it to a schedule 4 drug meaning that it is less addictive than lortab. There are 5 schedules of controlled substances. Schedule 1; are your illegal drugs, 2 - 5 are available through prescription with schedule 2 being the most addictive like adderall and morphine and schedule 5 drugs are the least addictive. I digress, I had a stint with some bad whiplash from a fender bender, more like fender gone. After my doc gave me flexeril and it didn't work, he prescribed me Soma. It is by far the best muscle relaxer I have tried. The pain in my neck and lowerback was gone. Not only that but it gave me a strange energy like buzz which was good because the flexeril made me super sleepy and useless. I did not abuse the Soma had no withdrawals when I stopped cold turkey. Granted I only took 2 to 3 a day for about 3 weeks but still I don't know why your doctor would give you a much more addictive drug that does not even hit the root of the problem. When I worked at the pharmacy I remember my pharmacist was super reluctant to fill scripts for it , making me call the doctors to make sure they were on it for legitimate reasons; like a written script was not enough. Yet he would give amphetamines (Adderall) to 8 yr old for ADD without a second thought. I once asked him why he did not like to fill Soma scripts; he said something like it turned into a barbiturate in the body and many junkies were using it with morphine and vicodin to produce a H like high. By itself, Soma seemed pretty innocuous to me and it worked like a charm. Shame the damn government has to put its big fat nose in everything including medicine and what is best for the patient.

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I've had a problem with my doctor not wanting to prescribe soma also. He would rather prescribe lortab, which doesn't make sense to me, because my pain was largely due to stiffness (I have fibromyalgia). I accepted the lortab, because that's all he seemed willing to prescribe, and the other muscle relaxers either didn't work or had awful side effects (usually nightmares). But I KNEW that if my muscle stiffness could be relieved, my pain would be greatly reduced. There was no talking about it though. Really upset me too, because I know people who have been addicted to opiates, and even people who died. I'm not on them anymore, and I was careful taking them, but it still makes me rather angry that I was denied what seemed to be the lesser of the two evils. And for what reason, I do not know.

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Soma contains the active ingredient Carisoprodol and Baclofen is the generic for Liorisal, they are both used as muscle relaxants, but are different classes of medications and work a little differently.

The Baclofen is known to work better for spinal pain and spasms. That may be why your doctor wants you to use, another reason could be that Soma is more commonly abused.

Another issue is that some doctors just don't always want to admit that certain medications don't work as well for everyone that uses them. I've run into this, before, myself. Some of them tend to think that what they know has worked well for other patients will work well for all of them. Unfortunately, medications don't work that way.

What worked great, with no problematic side effects, doesn't always work as well for someone else and they could also experience all of the side effects.

The only thing I can think of suggesting is perhaps switching doctors.

Learn more:

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Baclofen/­

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Soma/­

Are there any comments or questions?

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