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On 03/24/97 William Nowell asked: > >Can anyone share their experience with use of BACLOFEN? Last summer my husbands' neurologist prescribed Baclofen (10 mg) for him to help ease his episodes of extreme muscle rigidity which were making sleep difficult at night. At bedtime he took his first dose. It was also his last one. He ended up in the emergency room. We had a terrifying night of hallucinations followed by a morning when he flopped around like a rag doll and was extremely drowsy and somewhat confused mentally. At noon he choked on his lunch because of his lack of muscle tone. Baclofen is a powerful muscle relaxant and antispastic agent with central nervous system depressant properties. It produces sedation, sleepiness. It depresses the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Unfortunately, the neurologist did not tell us that it was recommended that the dosage and administration of Baclofen be gradual. The suggested dosage titration is to start with 5 mg and to increase the dose by 5 mg. every three days until 20 mg per day is reached. Stopping the drug should also be gradual to avoid unpleasant effects. Usually this drug is prescribed for patients with muscular dystrophy or spinal cord injuries. For some reason this was the occasion when I slipped up on my usual practice of checking with the PDR before administering any drug to my husband. It won't happen again. Most people have no problem with Baclofen, but it is contraindicated for some people who have a hypersensitivity to it. We found out the hard way that Neal seems to be one of them. We like to trust our doctors, but it is important to double check for ourselves when it comes to new medications. This is especially important for PWPs in the later stages who are taking a lot of different medications which increase the potential for drug interactions greatly. Martha Rohrer Caregiver for Neal, 77/12