User Reviews for Zanaflex

I have chronic pain from several herniated discs and spinal stenosis. I also have fibromyalgia. I began taking Zanaflex last month and the relief is wonderful. I no longer hurt and spasm all night and now I can sleep instead. I take 4mg tabs 2 at bedtime and go immediately to bed as it makes me drowsy right away and I become dizzy if I stay up. I wake up rested with no hangover at all and feel good the next day. I take narcotics during the day for pain relief and the addition of this to my regimen is great. I love it.

This medicine helped for fibromyalgia but caused hallucinations and fatigue.

I have had very positive results with this medicine. I have MS and this help reduce problems.

I found that this medicine managed the muscle spasms associated with the three herniated discs in the lumbar region of my back

Zanaflex is great for muscle spasms as I have them from Osteoarthritis in my spine, also spinal stenosis. If you are on any heart meds, please use the interactions checker because it may cause severe drops in blood pressure. I am taking Lisinopril, Hydrochlorothiazide and Metoprolol for heart arrhythmias and my blood pressure was dropping to dangerous levels. All of my specialists knew what medicines I was taking, but none of them noticed the interactions. I checked them myself here at Drugs.com and found the RED FLAGS myself, so be careful.

Been taking this for months for DDD/DJD (neck). I notice severe pain when I don't take this nightly but still have muscle pain even when I do. Main side effect is severe grogginess and dry mouth/hung over feeling. I have to be in bed about 20 mins after taking it or I am walking into walls literally. I have to drink a lot of water before bed to combat the hung over feeling. Recently switched back to Flexeril. Have also taken Robaxin but that didn't help much either. I get headaches when I take Tramadol and any narcotic so I take Tylenol during the day.

Have rupture disks in my lower back L4 L5. This is the best muscle relaxer for me, have taken about all of them. Better than Valium and Soma and they were 2 of the better muscle relaxers I had taken before!

This medicine actually works.

Make sure that you do not do anything where you need your balance, this medicine causes DIZZINESS.

I am new to this medicine. I have been on several other muscle relaxers and they never did a thing for me. After reading what everyone else has said about this muscle relaxer I am praying it will help for me as well. I have a bulging disc in my lower back that is pinching my sciatic nerve which caused me a lot of pain in my left hip.

Great Medicine. I have herniated discs and take it with Percocet, and am able to relax.

My Doctor prescribed me this medication due to the fact I could not sleep at night. He warned me that I would have vivid dreams, but I haven't really. I really like this medication as I can sleep through the night for the first time in years. The only draw back is that it knocks me out cold, and the next morning I am really stiff from not tossing and turning all night. I can live with that.

I have disc disease. I take 4mg only at night. Knocks me out. This is the only medicine that has helped with my pain and my muscle spasms. I sleep well all night and lasts through until next day. Only been taking it for 3 days. Finally found a good muscle relaxer. Only side effect I have noticed is dry mouth. I think it is great.

I have been using Zanaflex since 2003. I suffer from chronic pain and spasms due to herniated discs in neck and back. I have already had fusion done on neck and the pain and spasms never went away, that was due to the discs below the fusion herniated just after the surgery *over compensated for the discs above* I also have fibromyalgia, I am supposed to take 4mgs 3 times a day but only take it at night since it makes me sleepy most of the time and I am already on Percocet and Savella. I need to function during the day. Doctor says I can take all 3 at bedtime if I wanted but have only taken 2 at a time. Dry mouth is a side effect and sometimes I will have the grogginess in the morning but found that it is mostly due to taking it so late and getting up early.

MRI reveals badly blown out cervical disc @ c4-5. Now, as long as I didn't do much, I wouldn't have much pain but getting anything done (like yardwork, working out with pushups, painting a wall...etc) was another story and would leave me in severe pain but always THE NEXT DAY and for at least several days afterward (I never really felt the pain on the day of the activity). Then, my doctor gave me Zanaflex, and now I take one 4 mg tab that night, the next day is pain free! I haven't noticed any side effects, no next day grogginess and even the quality of sleep is normal with pleasant dreaming; in fact, if anything my dreams are slightly easier to remember which shows plenty of REM.

Zanaflex considerably reduced my back pain, headaches, muscle spasms, mandibular stress-related spasms and overall pain associated with spasticity due to neuromuscular condition. I take 2mg as I am small framed and thin person. I take it at bedtime to offset the 2 hour tiredness effect following ingestion. It works well for me.

I have been living with chronic neck, back and migraine pain for several years now. In the beginning, my doctors had me go to physical therapy, take ibuprofen, or aspirin. None of these things ever really helped. After trying Flexeril and numerous anti-inflammatories, my pain management doctor did an MRI and found that among the many tension knots and twisting of my spine, I had bulging disks in my neck. He gave me Zanaflex to take at night. It knocks me out within 20 minutes but helps relax my back and neck so that I can get restful sleep - been on it for 3 months now! I highly recommend it for continuous back pain and it's even helped with my migraines. Be ready for bed though - very powerful!

I have MS and was having terrible spasms at night. Since taking this medicine I feel much better.

Am having the runny nose, flu like symptoms, frequent urination and horrible diarrhea. This is the only change that has taken place. I left Flexeril and changed to this.

I have used this medicine along with narcotic pain killers for a cervical disc protrusion. When I weaned off the pain killers, the Zanaflex really helped with the withdrawal symptoms (RLS, anxiety, sleeplessness) I was experiencing. This medicine still helps with the muscle spasms I get and it doesn't make me tired either, probably due to the high tolerance levels I have from years of abuse, however it really saved me during the Norco withdrawals - and have been off all narcotics for a few months now.

I take this as an additional medicine for pain control and the deep tissue pain associated with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. The medicine is beneficial in helping the efficacy of the pain medicines taken.

I had been having muscle spasms the Zanaflex helped. I suffer from real bad insomnia; I have been unable to find a medicine that would work for me and once prescribed Zanaflex I have been able to sleep every night as long as I have them. So if anyone else suffers from insomnia maybe they could try Zanaflex, it really helps.

I was given Zanaflex 6 years ago to help me sleep. The rheumatologist claimed my diagnosis of Fibromyalgia required straight sleep. He forget to do radiographs for arthritis. It works well, I would never recommend taking it during the day though. I don't react to medications well, I did to Zanaflex. It makes me groggy and I would never do anything that needed full attention taking it. I take it at night only for sleep. It's a good medication but be careful if you go on Cipro or Levaquin (antibiotics). In 2007 they found a problem with the combination, you must come off Zanaflex while taking those and a few other antibiotics. Speak to your pharmacist but usually insurance coverage tells them that they can't be taken together.

I also have taken many muscle relaxants, including soma. When my doctor suggested this medicine to me I made sure that it was not a narcotic and habit forming. It is not. This is really been a blessing for me. Still makes me sleepy, but if taken with food wow it works!

I've been on Zanaflex for about 6 months now. At first it helped me sleep through the night but now I only get about 4 hours. I would not recommend taking in the day time because it seems to make you feel funny in the head if you don't go to sleep, and also have very vivid dreams on this.