• BASIC DRUG
    DISCUSSION
    Welcome to Bluelight!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Benzo Chart Opioids Chart
    Drug Terms Need Help??
    Drugs 101 Brain & Addiction
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums
  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Baclofen euphoria questions

Q

Qualityoflife89

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 14, 2016
Messages
3
From my considerably extensive research into the available threads on baclofen, I've discerned that I'm in the percentile of individuals who experience euphoria from oral baclofen ingestion. I've taken it in the past and experienced elevated mood, improved quality of life, decreased social anxiety, and all around euphoria; I never continued use until recently out of fear of dependcy.

I've always been hyper aware of anything that could potentially create a dependency, however, baclofen has made me reconsider. Dealing with increasing depression has begun a search for something to alleviate the symptoms. Baclofen, so far, obliterates depression.

It has allowed me to enjoy the things in life I used to prior to depression. I talk more, love more, and have no social anxiety. The only downsides I've noted are reduced speaking filterms and mild headaches upon waking.

I realize baclofen is potentially harmful at high doses. I've never ingested more than 60mg in a day. My recent average is 40-50mg. I intentionally keep it low.

My questions are these: does a tolerance for the euphoria, for those who experience it and have take baclofen for a long period of time, increase to unsafe levels? Does the euphoria eventually go away all together? Is there anything else I need to be aware of with the drug? Are there any similar alternatives that produce similar effects?

Thank you in advance. This drug has dramatically improved the quality of my life and any input by experienced users is immensely appreciated.
 
Baclofen is a GABAergic drug. Similar/related drugs are Phenibut, Gabapentin, and Lyrica.
 
^ These are the similar ones.

You'll get tolerance from the medication and with time you'll need to take more to feel the same.
The euphoria tends to decrease considerably and you'll use it to kill the withdrawal if you use it for a long time, in greater doses.
Suggest you follow your prescription, give it a break or seek for medical assistance/advice.
 
Baclofen is a GABA-B agonist. GHB is another drug that causes its effects by activating GABA-B receptors, and the physical dependence caused by GHB happens because of this (GHB or 1,4-BD withdrawal can be precipitated with substances that block GABA-B receptors, just like opioid withdrawal is precipitated with naloxone). Baclofen is probably quite difficult to get off if one has developed a high tolerance...
 
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by Qualityoflife89
From my considerably extensive research into the available threads on baclofen, I've discerned that I'm in the percentile of individuals who experience euphoria from oral baclofen ingestion. I've taken it in the past and experienced elevated mood, improved quality of life, decreased social anxiety, and all around euphoria; I never continued use until recently out of fear of dependcy.




quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by Qualityoflife89

I've always been hyper aware of anything that could potentially create a dependency, however, baclofen has made me reconsider. Dealing with increasing depression has begun a search for something to alleviate the symptoms. Baclofen, so far, obliterates depression.

It has allowed me to enjoy the things in life I used to prior to depression. I talk more, love more, and have no social anxiety. The only downsides I've noted are reduced speaking filterms and mild headaches upon waking.

I realize baclofen is potentially harmful at high doses. I've never ingested more than 60mg in a day. My recent average is 40-50mg. I intentionally keep it low.

My questions are these: does a tolerance for the euphoria, for those who experience it and have take baclofen for a long period of time, increase to unsafe levels? Does the euphoria eventually go away all together? Is there anything else I need to be aware of with the drug? Are there any similar alternatives that produce similar effects?

Thank you in advance. This drug has dramatically improved the quality of my life and any input by experienced users is immensely appreciated.





To a certain extent yes, but you'll still have those effects as long as you keep taking the baclofen - do you just feel more outgoing or kind of hypomanic, because that's part of the high/euphoria baclofen - (think of it like an antidepressant you have to take everyday ) I've taking baclofen for almost two years, and it still works for the stiffness/rigidity and spasms in my leg and retains all of the psychological benefits as the day I started it. When I first got on baclofen, I used it a lot. I never noticed a tolerance to its effects, ie having to escalate dosage. Even when taking a lot - 90 - 120mg. But beware, a single recreational dose of this med could send you into mild withdrawals. Whenever I took, say 90mg, I would get energized, talkative, outgoing. But a few hours later I would start sweating like crazy!

It is not hard to get off if you've be taking it for a long time at really high doses - no drug is hard to get off...dummies just don't know how to wean themselves off over an extended period lol. I think this is because the hyperpolarizations, which is a slow process - which is why these drugs take so long to kick in - (apparently the slow inhibitoryresponse caused by GABA itself take up 240minutes) tend to start causing t type calcium channels to open, causing depoaraizations and excitation in the CNS.

Phenibut and baclofen have such bad withdrawal sydromes because they are direct agonists at the GABA B receptor (which is one of the most important receptors in the brain for inhibition - benzos, neuroactive steroids, barbs, and alcohol only modulate the GABA A (GABAergically I mean...alcohol and barbiturates affect all sorts of ionic channels, ligand gated and voltaged gated) receptor. They don't bind to the GABA site and activate it). It would have been interesting if gaboxadol came out. It was a sleeping pill being developed that directly binds to the GABA A receptor instead of modulating it. The interesting thing is that it showed no reinforcing - ie dopaminergic - properties. But it caused hallucinations of the z-drug class and like muscimol (another GABA A direct agonist found in the amanita mucscaria mushrooms. But development was dropped because of the "liking" and "good drug effect" it was given by users who tested it in high doses when it was being tested for abuse potential. I guess they didn't want the DEA scheduling it so the threw it in the trash.

The lack of reinforcing effects means it would lack rewarding and addiction potential. But I wonder how bad the physical withdrawals would be from a direct GABA A agonist, especially if someone was abusing it like they do phenibut. Extreme excitatory kindling, neuronal death, and benzo-type withdrawal symptoms - but more severe - that would have high incidence of status epilepticus and possibly death. The neuronal death and brain damage from the kindling and hypermetabolic syndrome would be horrific too. Which is why people need to be more careful with phenibut and baclofen - they are pretty serious drugs - and bad withdrawals would leave the brain in a vulnerable state for glutamate, norepinephrine, aspartic acid, and acetylcholine to wreak havoc on the neurons and cause cell death.

Interestingly, intrathecal baclofen comes with a black box warning not to suddenely stop taking it or it could possibly lead to death. Of course, and delerium and schizophrenia type hallucinations, seizures (tonic-clonic and absence ), extreme muscle rigidty, high fever, and muscle death eventually. I can vouch for this as I had an overdose of baclofen (around 2,000g) and it destroyed my GABA B receptors via downregulation and I went through an extreme withdrawal syndrome with all the symptoms above, minus death and rhabdoyolysis. The extreme excitation I was going through was insane and I'm entirely sure to this day parts of my brain have been damaged from the kindling effect due to cognition and memory problems.

To the OP: it doesn't sound like you're experiencing euphoria per se, but baclofen's anxiolytic and stimulant/empathogenic qualities, due to its action GABA B receptors and GIRK channels/T type calcium channels. Baclofen is known to cause hypomania quite commonly, which is due to it deinactiving the t type calcium channel after late stage inhibitions, bringing the voltage low enough to open them. ( this is the reason baclofen is contraindicated in seizure disorders, absence seizures, because it increase neuronal activity and decreases GABA release in the thalomorcortical part of the brain which is responsible for consciousness:

Thalamocortical *part of the brain where absence seizures occurr; also it's intimately involved in consciousness * radiations have been researched extensively in the past due to their relationship with attention, wakefulness, and arousal. Past research has shown how an increase in spike-and-wave activity within the TC network can disrupt normal rhythms involved with the sleep-wakefulness cycle, ultimately causing absence seizures and other forms of epileptic behavior. Burst firing within a part of the TC network stimulates GABA receptors within the thalamus causing moments of increased inhibition, leading to frequency spikes, which offset oscillation patterns . Another study done on rats suggests during spike-and-wave seizures, thalamic rhythms are mediated by local thalamic connections, while the cortex controls the synchronization of these rhythms over extended periods of time. Thalamocortical dysrhythmia is a term associated with spontaneously reoccurring low frequency spike-and-wave activity in the thalamus, which causes symptoms normally associated with impulse control disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder,Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other forms of chronic psychosis . Other evidence has shown how reductions in the distribution of connections of nonspecific thalamocortical systems is heavily associated with loss of consciousness, as can be seen with individuals in a vegetative state, or coma.



There's another thread here by sonicwhite dealing with baclofen for gabapenting withdrawals. You should look into that. I list a whole table of therapeutic effects have on the body and
the conditions they treat..

Ireally wish the psychiatric community would take up baclofen and use it because I think it would help a people ( but who the fuck came up with Antabuse...what a horribe way to treat
a diseased mind. I just think it goes beyond the "do no harm" thing yet they insist on treating alcoholics by fear conditiong...) But no,..they would rather just use for it as violent deterrent...

There's no reason I can think why baclofen (or Lyrica really; in overseas it's approved for generalized anxiety disorder - it is used sometimes as a mood stabilizer) hasn't been picked up by the psychiatric community...the beavioral effects are well know and it works extremely well. Baclofen is the first drug I came across that actually eased my anxiety, eradicated social isolation and avoidance behavior, makes me more talkative and positive and outgoing.



>Similar drugs include the other gabapentinoids (lyrica, neurontin, phenibut) Indirect GABA agonists, include tiagabine and vigabatrin.

Vigabatrin is dangerouns and cause vision loss.

Tiagabine is a GABA reuptake inhibitor, increasing synaptic GABA levels which in turn cause more activation of the A and B receptors.

Alcohol feels the same to me - I'm immune to GABA A activation...but it affects GIRK channels as well, in addition to being an NMDA antagonist.
Barbiturates too...does anybody get effects from them like you would high dose pregablin
or baclofen/phenibut? They must have some effect of GABA B receptors or else Kir (non g coupled inward rectifying potassium) channels.

I've also heard that Potiga (ezogabine) has similar effects, but it's not really GABAergic; it's potassium channel opener. And since the
potassium-releated effects of the above mentioned gabapentinoids are attributed to the GIRK potassium channel. (Here's what it says in the
prescribing information: The mechanism by which ezogabine exerts its therapeutic effects hasvnot been fully elucidated. In vitro studies indicate
that ezogabine enhances transmembrane potassium currents mediated by the KCNQ (Kv7.2 to 7.5) family of ion channels. Byactivating KCNQ
channels, ezogabine is thought to stabilize the resting membrane potential and reduce brain excitability. In vitro studies suggest that ezogabine may also exert
therapeutic effects through augmentation of GABAmediated currents. )

But pregabalin and gabapenting both affect GABA synthesis as well, and I think there is some GABA T (enzyme) activity
on with higher doses of lyrica - but don't quote me on that. These both increase synaptic levels of GABA) I"ve also read somewhere that since gabapentin since needs the
l-amino acid transport system to get absorbed and cross the BBB, it can gain entry in the neuron if still attached, and from their it can cause nonvesicular release of GABA.

Gabapentin's interaction with amino acids :(ww.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059131102002959)

In-depth, non receptor mediated gabapentin enhancement of GABA (It's a reall good study.) :
Acute effects of gabapentin and pregabalin on rat forebrain cellular GABA, glutamate, and glutamine concentrations:

( http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059131102002959 )

Sorry for the long post... :/
 
Last edited:
So Tiagabine being a GABA reuptake inhibitor that increases synaptic GABA levels that causes more activation of the A and B receptors, would taking this along with GABAergic drugs, would it potentiate the effects? And if so, would it be dangerous like combining SSRIs and MAOIs leaving the threat of something like serotonin syndrome?
 
I sincerely appreciate everyone's input . I will continue to exercise caution with baclofen.

I believe I may have already experienced a slight tolerance in terms of it's euphoric effexts on day 6 of use; I've consumed 50mg orally today, beginning with 10mg at 6:30 AM, 10mg at 11:00 AM, 20mg at 1:30pm and another 10mg just now at 4:30 pm. I feel good, but it's different and not as pleasurable as use on day 1 and 2. It could be attributed to many things, including only 5 hours of sleep, an intense physical day at work, as well as some oxycodon use.

I've noted a few more side effects as well:
-I must stay strongly focused on tasks. My mind wanders with ease
-Slight drowsiness
-A mild upset stomach
-Slightly reduced ability to think critically and analytically

Of course I've not taken baclofen consistently or long enough to give an accurate experience. There are too many variables that could factor into the changes I've noted.

Girlwiththebluehair, is the top paragraph your personal experience in terms of tolerance? If so, that's very encouraging news. Two years with little to no increased physiological tolerance is great. And don't apologize for a large post, it was very helpful information.

If anyone else has experience with baclofen, I'm still very eager to hear your input.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Well, this is the 3rd time I have tried to share my only experience with baclofen. My phone froze and decided to restart itself just as I was about to submit the story, then on the 2nd attempt to submit it failed because there page expired. Arghhhh... Heh. So I guess I will make this one short and simple.

My only experience with baclofen was about 8 months ago when I was admitted into a hospital's mental health ward after taking some uneducated advice from a friend on getting straight into a clean, comfortable, and hospitable detox unit ASAP.

I took the advice, and part of it was telling the people that I am a drug addict and suicidal. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently this place didn't actually have a detox unit for opiate addicts. They only detoxed people dependent on benzos and alcohol, because the withdrawal from those can potentially be deadly, but opiate withdrawal is not deadly, though you may feel like during, or may even wish death upon yourself.

So instead of admittance into a detox unit I get put in the psych ward. This experience was terrible! Long story real short, I pretty much went 2 nights in cold turkey withdrawal in a hospital with a ton of medications to give just a little relief! The first couple nights there I spent squirming like a worm on a hook! At one point I tried even laying down on the floor because it was cooler down there. I was going thru the hot and cold shit while in the bed. When the nurse came in to give me the shitty meds that they gave me and didn't even remotely alleviate my symptoms ,she bickered "Sir, you need to get up off the floor. It's a safety hazard. " I told her the reason why I was in there, and she was just mean about it, so I argued back and said we'll if you gave me some medication that would actually work and help me sleep, I would get the FUCK up off the floor! So yeah, those first couple days and nights in there were just struggling through opiate withdrawal hell. Arguing and pleading with the doctors and staff to give me medication that actually would work and make me somewhat comfortable. Eventually I won the bottle, and I got them to put me on tramadol and ativan, so by the 3rd night I actually got some OK sleep before I was sent over to an actual detox that helped opiate addicts.

One of the medications they gave me was indeed BACLOFEN. I don't know if I actually noticed much of an effect from it, because I had to fight tooth and nail to get them to even get them to switch me from Motrin to tramadol and a benzo at night for sleep. But anyway, when the nurse said I was getting BACLOFEN, I had never heard of it and asked what it was exactly. She Said it would help with the anxiety and restless legs. It didn't seem to help much, but I think they gave me such a low dose of it, and I also already had a tolerance to GABA drugs, because I was on gabapentin at the as well. At that time I had no idea baclofen was even GABAergic. Otherwise, I would have had them up the dose Way Up. Lol. Usually while I am in opiate withdrawal, I find that taking gabapentin helped A LOT for WD relief. After the 48hour mark, I noticed my symptoms start to ease though, maybe the combination of gabapentin and baclofen potentiated each other? They were only giving me 600mg of my gabapentin at a time every 6hours, but I was always taking 2100mg doses or so at once for opiate withdrawal alleviation.

So when taken at the same time, do taking multiple GABAergic drugs potentiate each other? And is it dangerous to do like taking multiple serotonin affecting drugs resulting in serotonin syndrome for instance?
 
Qualityoflife89 said:
I sincerely appreciate everyone's input . I will continue to exercise caution with baclofen.

I believe I may have already experienced a slight tolerance in terms of it's euphoric effexts on day 6 of use; I've consumed 50mg orally today, beginning with 10mg at 6:30 AM, 10mg at 11:00 AM, 20mg at 1:30pm and another 10mg just now at 4:30 pm. I feel good, but it's different and not as pleasurable as use on day 1 and 2. It could be attributed to many things, including only 5 hours of sleep, an intense physical day at work, as well as some oxycodon use.

I've noted a few more side effects as well:
-I must stay strongly focused on tasks. My mind wanders with ease
-Slight drowsiness
-A mild upset stomach
-Slightly reduced ability to think critically and analytically

Of course I've not taken baclofen consistently or long enough to give an accurate experience. There are too many variables that could factor into the changes I've noted.

Girlwiththebluehair, is the top paragraph your personal experience in terms of tolerance? If so, that's very encouraging news. Two years with little to no increased physiological tolerance is great. And don't apologize for a large post, it was very helpful information.

If anyone else has experience with baclofen, I'm still very eager to hear your input.

Thanks again everyone!
Click to expand...

Yeah, tolerance to baclofen's physiological effects doesn't seem to happen, ie its muscle relaxing, and anti-spastic effects. The side effects you're experiencing are quite common. GABA B agonists impair cognition quite a bit. One of the racetams - fasoracetam - actually exerts some of its nootropic effects by antagonizing the GABA B receptors.

>sm0kestack:
Taking tiagabine with certain GABAergics would potentiate their effects, yes. But taking it with baclofen poses a risk for seizures, as they both lower the seizure threshold. I wouldn't combine the two. The manufacturer of Gabitril recommends that people who don't have epilepsy not even take the drug due to reports of it causing seizures and status epilepticus during therapy or after dose escalations, so if you do decide to combine it, especially with the gabapentinoids, I would be extremely cautious.
 
I have tried almost every gabaergic out there. As opposed to the benzos, gabapentin, lyrica etc. I have noticed no real tolerance to the effects of baclofen. But as someone already mentioned, you will have to continue taking your optimal dose. The MS community has used baclofen EXTENSIVELY, and my very well educated MD(yeah, rare) told me that in his use in these patients tolerance does not seem to develop. Sometimes there are 'flare-ups' which require temporary increases, but he said they generally go back to the previous dose.

After years of gabapentin and lyrica I can say without a doubt that there is some sort of near permanent tolerance to them. While a long break brings the magic back, its for shorter and shorter periods of time. Now in 2 days time of restarting I'd have a really hard time distinguishing 450mg/day of lyrica. As well it seems that soon after I'm tolerant they actually seem to make things worse when taking the same dose.

With Baclofen I have gone on and off of it many times, and it seems much different. I still always experience the side effects of too rapid titration(drowsiness, lethargy, amotivation, etc). I always have to taper off slowly, but in general I don't experience significant discomfort. I have never experienced much in the way of euphoria from baclofen, but in studying it I have found that taking large doses without titrating up to them seems to have conflicting effects on dopamine, transiently increasing it and at least in me causing a bit of mania alongside the overwhelming sleepiness and lethargy. Otherwise I don't experience euphoria from baclofen. However I do experience consistent anxiety relief. It also seems to long term restore the sensitivity of my dopamine system, possibly having an antidepressant effect upon cessation. I have smoked pot on and off most of my life, and without baclofen I find pot withdrawal to be nearly excruciating, especially around day 7-14. While baclofen doesn't treat all the symptoms, it makes it tolerable, mostly through the relief of insomnia and increase in appetite. For relief of pot withdrawal I tend to keep the dose low, like 30mg at night and 15mg midday the next day. Even when I am in full tolerance to gabapentin or lyrica I find tapering to be at least uncomfortable. Klonopin tapering is hell. As always YMMV, but baclofen has been an ally in my medicine chest for many years and at least so far hasn't ever turned on me.
 
I would like to know the comparison of phenibut and baclofen. Have you guys had experience with phenibut?
 
Qualityoflife89 said:
From my considerably extensive research into the available threads on baclofen, I've discerned that I'm in the percentile of individuals who experience euphoria from oral baclofen ingestion. I've taken it in the past and experienced elevated mood, improved quality of life, decreased social anxiety, and all around euphoria; I never continued use until recently out of fear of dependcy.

I've always been hyper aware of anything that could potentially create a dependency, however, baclofen has made me reconsider. Dealing with increasing depression has begun a search for something to alleviate the symptoms. Baclofen, so far, obliterates depression.

It has allowed me to enjoy the things in life I used to prior to depression. I talk more, love more, and have no social anxiety. The only downsides I've noted are reduced speaking filterms and mild headaches upon waking.

I realize baclofen is potentially harmful at high doses. I've never ingested more than 60mg in a day. My recent average is 40-50mg. I intentionally keep it low.

My questions are these: does a tolerance for the euphoria, for those who experience it and have take baclofen for a long period of time, increase to unsafe levels? Does the euphoria eventually go away all together? Is there anything else I need to be aware of with the drug? Are there any similar alternatives that produce similar effects?

Thank you in advance. This drug has dramatically improved the quality of my life and any input by experienced users is immensely appreciated.
Click to expand...
I took 30mg daily for a year or so and it kind of felt decent if I took all 3 at once, nothing to write home about. I never got WDs. Flexeril is similar imho, but maybe that's just synergy with my methadone?
 
it's sedating and does improve mood Deffo potentiates opiates it's not as recreational as pregabalin or diazepam but it's not useless either and yeah you gotta take atleast 30mg in one go I did get a high off 70mg and vision went weird but felt like shit after plus it has withdrawals similar to benzos doctors dont think so but I felt weird as fuck going 2 days without it.
 
It made me feel fucked up like on alcohol or benzos. I remember I kept waking up on my bed in the middle of the day and my dad asking why I was asleep only to pass out moments later again and wake up stumbling around my room. No I don't think I'm into that kind of high though it's not like kpins or fun benzos. Also I gave my friend some I can't remember the dosage and for whatever dumbass reason he cut his arm with a razor solely from being "fucked up" and he had to get stitches.

Hey at least he got some norcos for that though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top