Talk:Baclofen

Dosage

This article doesn't say what the standard range of doses is, nor does it give the typical amount for an overdose.  — 86.1.163.237 (talk) 09:46, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Addiction

The section reads like an advertisement for Ameisen's books. If Baclofen is indeed useful for addiction treatment, this should be supported with relevant citations, and without continual reference to what is clearly a commercial venture. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.55.161.108 (talk) 07:29, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

There have been indeed several formal tests to find out baclofen efficacy to treat addiction. I found two recent scientific papers stating precisely that:

BACLOFEN EFFICACY IN REDUCING ALCOHOL CRAVING AND INTAKE: A PRELIMINARY DOUBLE-BLIND RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED STUDY

Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial of Baclofen for Cocaine Dependence: Preliminary Effects for Individuals With Chronic Patterns of Cocaine Use

-- RinzeWind (talk) 18:58, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

At least with regard to alcohol addiction, the current version is clearly biased. It places the relevant section before more basic information, makes unsupported assertions, and says "Regrettably" when stating the fact that most scientists haven't seen this theory as being worth mention. I've tried to clean up the major violations. JamesMLane t c 08:25, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Russian cokeheads and tweakers use this stuff, religiously. But, as you may have guessed, NOT to treat addiction. Rather, it's reportedly a heavy stimulant abuser's best friend after a long binge, relaxing their jitters and letting them sleep. Doesn't do a thing to make them lay off the coke or meth, though, and hardcore users may use it at high dosages on a daily basis! Aadieu (talk) 08:59, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

(outdent) The study for alcoholics was only 30 days long; baclofen was administered 12 - 24 hours after the last drink to alcohol dependent individuals or placebo. Baclofen in my view was probably just suppressing alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Baclofen's suppression of temporary withdrawal symptoms may be being misinterpreted as being a successful treatment of alcoholism. We need to be careful about adding primary sources, especially weak primary sources and giving undue weight. We should try to add secondary sources, eg review papers and meta-analysis papers, per WP:MEDRS.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 00:12, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

What about something like: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21414953?dopt=Abstract - a secondary analysis of some randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. February 2011? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.164.183.150 (talk) 23:33, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

A prescribing guide has now been published in English after clinical experience over several years by doctors which has also resulted in the French alcohol agency recommending use of baclofen for alcoholism and a proposed RTU (Recommendation for Temporary Use) by the French government pending the completion of trials presently underway in France: http://www.sciencedomain.org/abstract.php?iid=315&id=12&aid=2459#.Ur--v_QW3RI

Should this be included because the US NIH have also begun a study: http://clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov/cgi/detail.cgi?A_2013-AA-0040.html

The topic of baclofen for alcoholism is also before the NICE in the UK for consideration of the issuing of guidelines based on best evidence. Restricting the article to only published double blind studies does not capture the state of play in baclofen research, nor the controversy which is evidenced by the conflicting comments on this Talk board. It is not so important to focus on trials in the case of baclofen because it is used for many conditions off-licence, such as nervous ticks and hiccups and was originally intended for epilepsy treatment. Restricting comment to licensed uses or trials ignores legitimate off-licence use which is indicated by medical professional regulatory codes of conduct.Burdenedwithtruth (talk) 07:44, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

Baclofen is now used extensively for alcoholism in France and was approved there in 2013, being granted an RTU licence for three years pending further studies. Those studies were completed in May 2014 and the results are being prepared for presentation to the French Government so that the drug will be licensed for treatment of alcoholism nationwide.195.175.63.174 (talk) 05:02, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

Alcohol can be used to self-medicate against muscle spasm. Clearly not a good idea. If the user was honest about his/her use of alcohol, and baclofen were substituted for alcohol, obviously baclofen would trump the alcohol. The writer Christy Brown probably used alcohol in this way Wythy (talk) 14:48, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

So, is it a modulator or agonist?

In the introduction, it says baclofen is an agonist for GABA_B receptors, yet the "Mechanisms of Action" says it's an allosteric modulator. However, the mechanisms of action bit isn't referenced - the only thing that is referenced is the GHB bits. I looked up my Rang and Dale Pharmacology text and it says baclofen is a selective GABA_B receptor - anyone got other sources to back this up? 123.211.190.87 (talk) 03:33, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

It is an agonist. www.sciencedomain.org/download.php?f=Gache452013BJMMR7069...77.92.17.160 (talk) 04:11, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Aren't some references already implied?

Many sections have an Unreferenced section tag. However, all articles about pharmacology contain references to the nih pubchem db and others. Should we bother with littering such articles with unreferenced tags, when most references are practically implied? I agree it's a boring job to add the deep links, and as an example I added references to Pubchem entries for each mode of administration for this particular drug. (I had to lookup an entry for the oral mode, just reused the one in the box for intrathecal mode). Maybe we just need some macros for this type of thing. Henk Langeveld (talk) 23:46, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

I agree, and here is another seemingly pointless tag example: "Historically baclofen was designed[by whom?] as a drug for treating epilepsy. It was synthesized for the first time in Ciba-Geigy by the Swiss chemist Heinrich Keberle in 1962." It seems a read of the second sentence would answer 'by whom'. JascalX (talk) 01:13, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

This article needs a significant amount of work.

Reference to Autism claim wrong

The reference of: Autism In 2012, baclofen was suggested for treatment of autism.[11]

^ "Half Of Children With Autism Wander, Study Says". http://huffingtonpost.com.+October 7, 2012.

seems not to say anything about Baclofen or a connection between Baclofen and Autism!?

86.33.158.14 (talk) 14:46, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

I have simply removed the statement for now. If there is information about the use of baclofen for treating autism that can be referenced to a WP:MEDRS-compliant source, then it can be added back in. -- Ed (Edgar181) 16:03, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

I believe this refers to the clinical trial of arbaclofen, which I think is a variant of Baclofen, for the treatment of Autism by the company Seaside. Reference here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/business/an-experimental-drugs-bitter-end.html?hp&_r=0 18.93.14.48 (talk) 14:30, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

This is the worst page on wikipedia

Listen to your gut http://ajcc.aacnjournals.org/content/15/6/611.full http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16454779 http://www.baclofenpump.com/living/during-treatment/underdose-overdose/index.htm http://emj.bmj.com/content/22/9/673.full http://www.mywayout.org/community/f20/baclofen-great-drug-but-also-extremely-deadly-60370.html http://www.drugs.com/baclofen.html http://multiple-sclerosis.emedtv.com/baclofen/baclofen-overdose.html This Sheise is bananas... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.217.250.87 (talk) 18:37, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

No it isn't. Look at Cheryl Cole's, Deal or No Deal, Glasto Festival to name just 3 Wythy (talk) 14:43, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

The above post on an internet forum is of no help. This forum is notorious for people posting fake stories of problems with baclofen. There are no reported cases of deaths from oral administration of baclofen even in large overdoses. I don't know why this section is even here. There are plenty of peer reviewed papers on baclofen which are not hysterical.77.92.17.160 (talk) 05:04, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Needs editing

"There are very few cases of abuse of baclofen for reasons other than attempted suicide.[6]". If there are only a very few cases of attempted suicide with Baclofen then this sentence needs to be reworded.

"Baclofen produces its effects by activating the GABAB receptor, similar to the drug phenibut which also activates this receptor and shares some of its effects. Baclofen is postulated to block mono-and-polysynaptic reflexes by acting as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, blocking the release of excitatory transmitters. However, baclofen does not have significant affinity for the GHB receptor, and has no known abuse potential.[12] "

First, what does in the first part of the section imply baclofen having an affinity for GHB receptor, that we need to say it does not? That sentence seems irrelevant, since GHB (which does bind to GHB receptor) is not even mentioned in the preceding sentences. Second, how is it that baclofen "has no known abuse potential" if the it causes a very serious benzodiazepine-like withdrawal syndrome and is a well-known drug of abuse in Russia (as stated in the article itself)? --78.84.59.209 (talk) 20:29, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Abuse

"it does not produce euphoria or other pleasant effects" and "Baclofen is a very well-known drug of abuse in Russia." is pretty meaningless. Baclofen DOES produce euphoria and "high" in dosage of about 125mg, a halfway between alcohol and "Extasy" (MDMA) experience. Just buy it and try it if you need a proof. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.102.122.86 (talk) 18:45, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Indeed, baclofen definitely has abuse potential. You don't need to go far — there are multiple resources such as Bluelight, Erowid, many Russian sites and a lot of comments there from recreational drug users stating baclofen induces euphoria, drunk-like feeling, increased libido, talkativeness, etc., and also produces a prominent withdrawal syndrome. As a Russian, I can confirm it's quite popular among young adults as a cheap (for today, fifty 25-mg tablets cost 524 ₽ = 9.17 US$) and readily available drug, because many pharmacies will sell you it without medical prescription. You can google «баклофен наркотик» (baclofen [recreational] drug) or «баклофен трип» (baclofen trip) and get a big amount of drug user forums and sites helping to drug addicts. Too bad there are very few papers mentioning baclofen abuse, but here are some examples:

• Nasti, JJ; Brakoulias, V (January 2011). "Chronic Baclofen Abuse and Withdrawal Delirium". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 45 (1): 86–7. doi:10.3109/00048674.2010.524622. PMID 21058925.
• Das, S; Palappalllil, DS; Purushothaman, ST; Rajan, V (2016). "An Unusual Case of Baclofen Abuse". Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. 38 (5): 475. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.191383. PMC 5052965. PMID 27833235.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
• Perry, HE; Wright, RO; Shannon, MW; Woolf, AD (June 1998). "Baclofen Overdose: Drug Experimentation in a Group of Adolescents". Pediatrics. 101 (6): 1045–8. PMID 9606233.
• Ghosh, S; Bhuyan, D (31 May 2017). "Baclofen Abuse Due to Its Hypomanic Effect in Patients with Alcohol Dependence and Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder". Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience. 15 (2): 187–9. doi:10.9758/cpn.2017.15.2.187. PMID 28449569.

Also there is one very interesting paper about phenibut (dechlorinated baclofen analog) dependence alleviated by baclofen:

• Samokhvalov, A. V.; Paton-Gay, C. L.; Balchand, K.; Rehm, J. (7 February 2013). "Phenibut Dependence". BMJ Case Reports. 2013. doi:10.1136/bcr-2012-008381. PMC 3604470. PMID 23391959.

62.192.231.70 (talk) 15:28, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

As someone who uses Baclofen at high doses to treat alcohol cravings I can definitely attest that it produces euphoria, highly increased libido with anorgasmia, mania, confusion, forgetfulness, a drunk-like feeling that does NOT involve loss of coordination or slurred speech, increased confidence and disinhibition amongst other things. Dosage must be very carefully controlled to avoid extremely unpleasant side-effects due to overdose. I'm amazed actually at how liberally it is prescribed. If doctors really knew what they were handing out they'd be horrified. It ought to be a strictly controlled drug like Valium, but I'm glad it's not, yet anyway, because it did save my life, literally. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Duprie37 (talk • contribs) 08:22, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

This whole section is self-contradictory, and needs review and update &/or expansion.

As it stands, the section directly contradicts itself. It quotes the BNF that euphoria is a common to very common side effect of baclofen, then a couple of sentences later says "baclofen does not produce euphoria". The former statement has a reliable source, the latter none ("euphoria" is not in the ref cited). Drugs.com also lists euphoric mood as a common SE. I would just drop "euphoria" from the last sentence, but most of the section is given over to a contrast between baclofen (little abuse potential, not euphoric) and GHB (addictive, euphoric) & would become even more confusing if truncated. Based on the earlier comments, and what I know of GABA agonists, I would be very surpised if baclofen did not produce euphoria and addiction in recreational use, bearing in mind that such use is typically under very different conditions from medical. The section needs revision & updating, hopefully expansion, by someone with better access to current journals than I have. --D Anthony Patriarche, BSc (talk) 23:41, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

That's so dumb. Just because some people misuse it, means it should be restricted? It's already restricted enough, requiring a doctors prescription to obtain it already. It doesn't need any additional restrictions. All you'd be doing is hurting people who need it, just like the whole opioid epidemic did. 2600:6C44:6D00:4F6:456E:398F:73AB:630 (talk) 04:01, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Baclofen

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Baclofen's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "chou":

• From Cyclobenzaprine: Chou R, Peterson K, Helfand M (2004). "Comparative efficacy and safety of skeletal muscle relaxants for spasticity and musculoskeletal conditions: a systematic review". Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 28 (2): 140–175. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2004.05.002. PMID 15276195.
• From Antispasmodic: Chou, Roger; Peterson, Kim; Helfand, Mark (2004). "Comparative efficacy and safety of skeletal muscle relaxants for spasticity and musculoskeletal conditions: A systematic review". Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 28 (2): 140–75. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2004.05.002. PMID 15276195.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 07:46, 7 January 2018 (UTC)