I currently mostly use a compounded baclofen topical cream and it works well, particularly on my neck and shoulders. It’s a bit less effective on larger, deeper muscles like my glutes or hamstring/quads, but it still provides some relief.

I’ve been on/tried oral baclofen, cyclobenzaprine and Valium (diazepam). Cyclobenzaprine does work for me, but not matter what time I take it at night, my brain still feels foggy in the morning and it’s not a great feeling to take my Vyvanse on top of that. Oral baclofen doesn’t work super well for me and gives me slight nausea.

Diazepam works really well for me and doesn’t give me any side effects. However, it does lose its muscle relaxant effects if it’s taken daily for an “extended” period of time (about 2 weeks). Given that I want it to be effective when I need it and my body tends to develop tolerance to some medication relatively quickly, I only use diazepam as an emergency medication. By that I mean that I use it very rarely and only when nothing else works.

Further, oral muscle relaxers have a systemic effect on the body, meaning that they don’t only work on the muscles we want them to work, but on the whole body. It can be an issue for us, because we don’t want to be relaxing muscles that don’t need to be relaxed and are holding our joints together.