Muscle Relaxers – Effectiveness

Muscle Relaxers

Caution should be exercised when using muscle relaxers because of the the side effects.  They are good however, for managing lower back pain.

Some benefits have been seen by using cyclobenzaprine hydrochloride most currently in large clinical trials, but then again so have flexeril, diazepam and metaxalone.

Usually muscle relaxants have been put into one group by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and it has mostly approved a few medicines in this particular class for treatment of spastic muscles. Musculoskeletal conditions are what the FDA reserves the remainder of the approvals for.

There are some studies comparing what happens when you combine cyclobenzaprine and naproxen (Naprosyn) with naproxen by themselves and the study found out that this combo was a superior therapy in helping to reduce the tender spasms and providing greater motion in patients who have low back spasms with pain.

A test was done between cyclobenzaprine and crisoprodol in patients who had bad lumbar pain and also lumbar spasms where the pain was rated medium to very difficult and lasted no longer than 7 days. There was almost no difference in the use of these two drugs between the groups who used either one.

It seems that Carisoprodol is much more effective when providing pain reduction and even improving the motion of the painful area.  This same study revealed that the pain reduction and mobility were of a priority greater than that of the drowsiness some patients experienced with the medication.

Flexeril (Cyclobenzaprine) is definitely better than diazepam in the treatment of people who have low pain in the back .  In this same study the occurrence of problem reactions seemed higher in the people who where taking the diazepam.