Flexeril for Back Pain

Flexeril for Back Pain is a drug often prescribed for patients with severe pain and muscle spasms. Flexeril is the most common brand name of the drug Cyclobenzaprine, which is a muscle relaxant and central nervous system depressant. Flexeril is normally prescribed in conjunction with analgesic pain relievers.

There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding this popular drug, since the way it works is not completely understood and the risk of side effects is relatively high, especially for long term usage.

Flexeril for Back Pain Facts

Recreational use of this drug at exponentially higher doses is somewhat common due to the popular nature and easy availability of Flexeril. Effects of recreational use are overall relaxation and sedation. It is often used as a sleep aid or to increase the effects of "downers".

Risks of Flexeril for Back Pain

Common side effects include persistent sleepiness or malaise, dizziness and distorted or blurred vision.

Damage to the eye structures is a possible effect of continuous usage.

Loss of muscular strength and function is another common effect of Flexeril.

The most typically reported side effect is an extremely dry mouth.

When combined with other more powerful drugs, this product can enact serious health risks and may even prove fatal in rare instances.

Recommendation on Flexeril for Back Pain

I did not experience any relief from Flexeril, but I certainly do remember the horrible dry mouth experience very well. I also remember feeling out of it and lazy when taking this drug. Although I only tried it on a couple of occasions, I got the feeling I was much better off without it. No surprise here, since this was my experience with all pharmaceutical forms of treatment.

This is a drug that is often prescribed like candy for muscular back pain. Some patients like the relaxed feeling and continue to complain of pain in order to keep gaining access to the drug. Before long, a dependency develops, with the patient not being able to relax or sleep without the drug. Now the patient has joined the massive horde of prescription medicine junkies, all due to their dependency on pharmaceutical back pain relief.

Do yourself a favor, don’t take it unless you really need it and stop as soon as possible. Drugs might help to relieve pain, but they do it at the expense of being poisonous to your body. I recommend trying alternative methods of pain relief which have no risk of long-term effects or dependency issues instead. Talk to your doctor to see if acupuncture, TENS, chiropractic or other non-pharmaceutical method of symptom management may be better choices for you.