Some OTC medicines and Prescription for muscle spasms

Nonprescription remedies

There are several things you can take by mouth that may help with your muscle spasms:

• • NSAIDs. Over-the-counter (OTC) nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) often bring relief by reducing inflammation and pain.
  • Pickle juice. Drinking a small amount of pickle juice reportedly relieves cramping muscles within 30 to 35 seconds. This is thought to work by restoring electrolyte balance.
  • Supplements. Salt tablets, vitamin B-12, and magnesium supplements are used by some people to treat and prevent muscle spasms. It’s important to note that there’s limited evidence to show that these are effective.
  • Natural muscle relaxers. Natural muscle relaxants include drinking chamomile tea, adding capsaicin to foods, and improving your sleep.

 

Prescription medication for Muscle Spasms

If you have a persisting muscle spasm, especially if it’s severe, your doctor may prescribe a muscle relaxant or a pain medication.

Muscle relaxants used for muscle spasms are called centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxants (SMRs), and are often only prescribed for 2- to 3-week periods.

A List of Skeletal muscle relaxants

 

Although skeletal muscle relaxants are recommended for short-term use in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain, approximately 44.5% of users remain on them for more than a year.

Due to CNS depression, cyclobenzaprine, metaxalone, orphenadrine (Norflex, others), methocarbamol (Robaxin, others), carisoprodol, and chlorzoxazone (Lorzone, Parafon Forte DSC, others) are on the American Geriatrics Society’s Beers List of inappropriate drugs for elderly patients.

Despite this, approximately 300,000 annual prescriptions for skeletal muscle relaxants (15%) are issued to patients older than 65 years of age.

Skeletal muscle relaxants represent a diverse pharmacotherapeutic group of medications across several chemical classes that are structurally dissimilar. These agents are effective for spasticity, skeletal muscle spasms, or both.

Because of the breadth of pharmacologic mechanisms and variable pharmacokinetics, the drugs have a huge range of AEs and potential drug interactions.

Considering that these agents are most often used in the elderly and also as adjuvants for the treatment of chronic pain patients with multiple comorbidities who are likely receiving a polypharmaceutical regimen (including opioids), skeletal muscle drug selection for each patient requires careful attention to these factors.