Can You Get Addicted to Muscle Relaxers? Cyclobenzaprine, Soma and Baclofen Are Three Different Answers

The honest answer to this question depends entirely on which muscle relaxer you mean, and most pages answer it as if they were all the same drug. They are not. Cyclobenzaprine, sold as Flexeril, is the one most people are asking about, and it sits at one end of the range. Carisoprodol, sold as Soma, sits at the other. Baclofen is a third case that has nothing to do with addiction and everything to do with how you stop.

Carisoprodol, sold as Soma, is the muscle relaxer that is actually addictive. Its label says it can be habit-forming, and the DEA placed it in Schedule IV in January 2012 after years of documented misuse.

The reason is what the body turns it into. Carisoprodol is metabolically converted to meprobamate, itself a Schedule IV sedative, and the scheduling decision recorded the FDA’s conclusion that its public health risks may therefore be similar to meprobamate’s, alongside animal studies showing effects similar to barbital, meprobamate and chlordiazepoxide. People who misuse Soma describe a sedation and a looseness that cyclobenzaprine does not give, and it is very often taken alongside opioids or alcohol to deepen both. Soma dependence is real, its withdrawal is real, and it is the muscle relaxer that brings people to detox.

Methocarbamol, sold as Robaxin, and tizanidine sit closer to cyclobenzaprine than to Soma, with no controlled-substance status and little misuse, though tizanidine has its own reasons not to be stopped abruptly.

Sources: Carisoprodol, MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine; Placement of Carisoprodol Into Schedule IV, Federal Register 76 FR 77330, December 2011.

Withdrawal from muscle relaxers ranges from almost nothing with cyclobenzaprine to a genuine medical emergency with baclofen, so the drug name matters more than the category.

With cyclobenzaprine, the label describes rare nausea, headache and malaise after stopping long-term use, and nothing more. With carisoprodol, stopping after regular use produces the withdrawal of the sedative it becomes, meprobamate: anxiety, insomnia, tremor, and in heavy use the same risks as any sedative withdrawal. With baclofen, the label is explicit that stopping abruptly can cause seizures, fever, confusion, muscle stiffness or hallucinations, and that the dose should be reduced gradually. That is not addiction. It is a drug the nervous system has adapted to, which is a different thing and in baclofen’s case a more dangerous one.

If you have been on any of these for months and want to stop, the first call is to whoever prescribed it, and for baclofen and Soma that call is not optional.

Source: Baclofen, MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine.

Detox for muscle relaxers is a medical assessment first, then a supervised taper for Soma or baclofen rather than an abrupt stop. Any alcohol, opioid or benzodiazepine dependence alongside it is managed as the main event.

For someone on cyclobenzaprine alone, the answer after assessment is often that a detox stay is not needed and a conversation with the prescriber is. For someone on Soma, or on a muscle relaxer with other sedatives, it is an inpatient stay in Austin or Houston of usually five to seven days, vital signs and breathing monitored through the night, and the next step arranged before discharge. What that costs, self-pay and with insurance, is on how much detox costs. Admissions is answered around the clock, and the first thing a nurse will ask is which muscle relaxer, which is the right question.