Mother's been taking Baclofen for two weeks and I'm getting increasingly anxious about it. She's 90 year old patient, CHF, stage IV renal failure, vascular dementia, stroke Dec. 2014, gradually worsening dystonia in left arm led to GP prescribing Baclofen, 5mls per day. Even with the low dose she seems to be getting many of the common side effects without much improvement in the pain - she's less and less responsive, even more fatigued, making zero effort with anything, depressed, sweaty and I'm scared stiff about her kidney function.
Anyone had good results? Any heads-ups about why I should argue harder for stopping it? The dystonia was freaking me out; now the Baclofen is freaking me out; you can't win...
Good luck!
I know that's a lot of somewhat techical and experience based stuff to say on here, but the bottom line is that is a drug that is supposed to make you feel or function better makes you worse, don't keep taking it if you don;t have to. Something that works great for lots of folks is the first thing the doc wants to try BUT it may just not agree with you, and more often than not, these things are not predictable in advance. So if you have and confirm a nasty side effect (usually worth trying twice to make sure if it is not too dangerous and might be something else, that's my personal policy for MY adverse reactions) make a note of it, because chances are good the next doc will want to try the same thing again if they don't know its been done already.
Swallowing problems, oy. But it's actually her breathing that I'm getting seriously worried about, along with at least half of the "common" side effects - sweating, muscle weakness (like she needs more of that), and a steep decline in her mood - right back to flat affect now. Getting a response out of her is like pulling teeth.
Enough whining! The district nurse took bloods this morning so I'll call the GP tomorrow and hope she'll agree to a moratorium. And if I can swing it maybe even agree to badgering the geratrician (who's also a neurologist) into reviewing her next week when she goes for her pacemaker check.
I don't know why they give us patient information leaflets if they wish we wouldn't read them.
I'm also hoping that these new bouts of breathlessness are muscle weakness, listed among the common side effects, and not a silent cardiac event which to be honest she could have at any time. Oh boy. There's no new oedema and she's been off diuretics for a month, now, but you can't help worrying.
Hopeful about seeing the neuro./geriatrician on Thursday, too, thanks to his lovely helpful secretary; bit more begging to do on Monday and with any luck he'll squeeze us in. Thanks again, I'll read the article with interest and pass it on for future reference.