Drug info - Less sedating benzodiazepines?

[ironmics]

So swim is on valium for back spasms and various opiates for pain depending on how bad it is that day. Anyway valium makes it much easier to fall asleep just from the reduced pain aspect of it. However it seems that no matter what time he falls asleep he'll wake up at like 10 am. Not a huge problem because his earliest class is 11, but he's used to waking up anywhere in between 7-9 depending on how late he was up. Then his doc put him on skelaxin which he said shouldn't sedate him as much, but it does even more and it's not even as fun! Is there anything in the benzo class that will relax the muscles in his back without keeping him down and out for so damn long?

[DrMuffy]

Well the Valium is probably what is making SWIY sleep late. It has a very long half life, so its still active when you wake up. SWIdr has taken skelaxin and did not knotice too much of a sedation/hangover effect, although has been known to make people tired. Maybe SWIY should try to not take his valium for one day and see if he still wakes up late....just o see if thats whats causing the prob.
But anywho, valium on is own has muscle relaxant properties, but there are other options too. Soma (Carisprodol) and Flexeril (Cyclobenzaprine) are just some of the more popular priscription muscle relaxers, but they too cause drousiness. Also, SWIY might want to try some ethnobotanicals such as kava kava or kratom, which can really help with pain management and muscle spasms. Hope this helps ya out with his problem.

[ironmics]

Thanks man, yea there is a guy who deals kratom in swims small town. So he could get a hold of some. He hasn't taken it in a while but he does like it. I did stay off the valium for two days and my sleeping was fine so he's sure its the valium, then going to the skelaxin the same thing happened. He saw that tetrazepam would work perfectly, but things say that it doesn't get used in the US anymore. Do you think any pharmacy would carry it?

[DrMuffy]

Yes, tetrazepam sounds like it is a good benzo for SWIY's situation, but SWIdr isn't 100% sure its still on the market. A quick google search said it was used mainly in Australia and France. But SWIdr never found anything that said it was taken off the US market. It is definatly one of least known benzos, but a quick talk with SWIY's doc should clear up anything. He may not even know about it, but a quick look in their giant book of medicine should show him its a good drug for your condition.

[ironmics]

Aghhh so swim can't get a hold of his normal doctor, so he decided to call his pharmacy and ask about it. The pharmacist barely even listened to him but expalined the half life of valium yada yada stuff he already knew. Then he suggests flexeril! So swim looks up the half life of flexeril and it's 18 hours!! He is getting quite frustrated with all this crap. On top of all that the pharmacist said every benzo would cause drowsiness....duh that's why he asked about tetrazepam, so swim said he didn't care about drowsiness while taking it just the next morning......but hell they probably think he's a junkie with all the scripts he has out right now. So he's calling a different pharmacy.

[ironmics]

Nope no tetrazepam in the US right now. So he actually just got the flexeril, it was cheap enough....same effect. He really doesn't want to have to take a muscle relaxer, but it makes climbing stairs, bending over, getting dressed, etc much easier. Oh well I guess he's screwed unless he goes back to robaxin which makes him feel really weird.