• Corpus ID: 20655086

Choosing a skeletal muscle relaxant.

@article{See2008ChoosingAS,
  title={Choosing a skeletal muscle relaxant.},
  author={Sharon See and Regina Ginzburg},
  journal={American family physician},
  year={2008},
  volume={78 3},
  pages={
          365-70
        }
}
Skeletal muscle relaxants are widely used in treating musculoskeletal conditions. However, evidence of their effectiveness consists mainly of studies with poor methodologic design. In addition, these drugs have not been proven to be superior to acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for low back pain. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses support using skeletal muscle relaxants for short-term relief of acute low back pain when nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or acetaminophen… 
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Antispasmodics and Muscle Relaxants
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Most guidelines and current evidence support short-term use for all medications discussed in this chapter, and there is no clear evidence to show superiority of one muscle relaxant over another in managing acute low back pain.
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Muscle relaxants in general compared to placebo or to each other showed little evidence with significant statistics, therefore the drug selection should be based on the profile of adverse effects, patient preference, potential of abuse, Potential of interaction with other drugs, cost and other characteristics of the drugs.
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Five trials provide high quality evidence that muscle relaxants provide clinically significant pain relief in the short term for acute LBP, and there was no eligible RCT evidence to support the efficacy of benzodiazepines in LBP.
The Safety and Efficacy of Methocarbamol as a Muscle Relaxant with Analgesic Action: Analysis of Current Data
TLDR
Methocarbamol has proven to be an effective and safe drug for use as a supplement to exercise regimen, physiotherapy and other activities to ease the discomfort associated with acute musculoskeletal disorders.
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TLDR
Muscle relaxant use was common in hemodialysis patients and associated with altered mental status and falls and the lower risk for death with muscle relaxants may have been the result of residual confounding.
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Although there is still insufficient evidence to recommend cannabinoids for spine pain treatment, this chapter discusses this emerging medication class because it has been already used to treat certain pain conditions.
Acute back pain: benefits and risks of current treatments
  • B. Mccarberg
  • Medicine
    Current medical research and opinion
  • 2010
TLDR
A wide range of treatments is currently recommended for the management of patients with acute back pain and all are supported by results from controlled clinical trials, which support the view that both NSAIDs and low-level continuous heat treatment are more effective than acetaminophen.
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TLDR
The considerable growth in the use of baclofen, tizanidine, and methocarbamol paralleled with a decline in carisoprodol and metaxalone use and trends varied among individual agents, patient groups, and geographic regions.
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Using real-world data, several new signals of potential muscle relaxant drug interactions associated with unintentional traumatic injury are identified and one among 16 signals is currently reported in a major drug interaction knowledge base.
Risk for Fractures with Centrally Acting Muscle Relaxants: An Analysis of a National Medicare Advantage Claims Database
TLDR
Evidence of an association between the risk of fractures and the use of centrally acting muscle relaxants in older adults is provided, which supports current recommendations advising extreme caution in prescribing muscle Relaxants to older adults.
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