Patient/caregiver was educated on precautions to be exercised while taking baclofen as follows:
- Discuss with your physician regarding your history of hypotension and bradycardia, if any. Baclofen has the potential to cause or enhance the likelihood for low blood pressure and reduced heart rate, which can sometimes be life-threatening. This risk with baclofen can be even high when it is taken in high doses or along with any other products and medications causing low blood pressure, such as, antihypertensive medications, antidepressants, antianxiety medications, and sedatives. Discuss with your physician regarding all your other medications and their risk of causing/aggravating risk for hypotensive and bradycardia episodes. Try spacing them out to prevent exacerbation of hypotensive episodes. Report any episodes of increased dizziness, syncope, and loss of consciousness while taking Baclofen. Hypotension and bradycardia, secondary to baclofen intake, can contribute to the confusion and dizziness, thus significantly increasing the risk for fall and accidents. Try changing the positions very slowly, until you are used to the side-effects of Baclofen. Sudden change of positions can make the confusion and dizzy episodes even worse and precipitate accidents and falls. Compliance with use of recommended assistive device, if any, can help with fall and accident prevention. Observing compliance with log maintenance of everyday blood pressure readings and reporting any consistently low blood pressure readings to your physician, can help with necessary changes made on your care plan, to help better management of blood pressure numbers and prevent hypotensive episodes from occurring.
- Baclofen could potentially interact with a lot of other medications and precipitate serious reactions. If you are being newly started on baclofen, discuss with your physician regarding all your current medications and their safety with baclofen. Also, notify your physician regarding any current baclofen intake, if you are being started on any new medications and discuss their safety with baclofen.
- Baclofen use, especially in individuals with any current seizure complaint or history of seizures, can occasionally result in lowering of seizure threshold, deterioration of seizure control, and episodes of seizures. Baclofen is avoided for a better alternative or must be very cautiously administered in individuals with seizure history and response closely monitored. Seizure precaution and management measures must be reinforced. Observe compliance with intake of prescribed anti-seizure medications, if any. Any episodes of seizures while taking Baclofen should be immediately reported to the physician, for necessary medication changes to be considered.
- Your physician could change the dose of baclofen, based on the response you show, relief obtained, and side-effects presented with. So, maintain compliance with follow-up physician appointments and be accommodative to the plan of dose changes, until you show an optimum response.
