Report A Drug Interaction
As ever, I want to constantly reassure you the Baclofen is a really safe drug. In particular, it seems to get on well with most other medications. However, from time to time people taking Baclofen (especially in high doses) will suffer from interactions with other medicine(s) they may be taking.
It is important that this information is collected.
In an ideal world, we would all be under the care of interested and experienced physiciand, to whom we could report any adverse reactions. They would assess and manage the interaction and report it to the relevant authorities (eg the FDA in the USA, and the CSM in the UK). They would then evaluate each report, collate them with others, and if necessary disseminate the information to all other physicians.
This however is not the case for the overwhelming majority of Baclofen users.
If you do suffer a reaction, you should still report it to your physician. I know that many of you might not wish to do this, especially if the interacting medicine is something else that you might be self-prescribing. Consequently, I would be grateful if you would, at least, report any adverse drug interactions to this site. As takers of Baclofen, we can pool our own resources until the medical profession catches up.
I hope to put together a formal 'Interactions Submissions Form' in due course. But for now, I would be very grateful if you could send me an e-mail here including the following types of details:
- your age
- your sex
- drug(s) being taken with Baclofen
- were you taking this medication before you started Baclofen
- nature of the interaction - symptoms, signs, duration, frequency, severity
- how long on Baclofen
- dose of Baclofen at time of complication
- any history of this complication prior to commencing Baclofen
- what have you done about it?
- have you sought medical advice? If so, what was it?
- have you altered the dose of Baclofen. If so, to what dose, and what efefct did it have?
To give you an idea of the kind of thing that would help, take a look at something I could have written:
I'm a 48 year old man, I am otherwise fit and well, and only take asthma inhalers. I do atke Atenolol, a selective beta blocker, for an over active autonomic nervous system. When I got to Baclofen 50mg three times a day, I suffered several severe syncopal (fainting-type) attacks. This was due to the combination of medications causing my blood pressure to drop significantly upon standing. As I reduced my Baclofen dose to 50mg twice a day for maintenance, the problem just went away.
I hope that gives you an idea.
Thank you so much for helping me and us all by reportng your drug interaction(s).
Dr Phill
