Muscle Relaxant, Muscle Relaxants, Muscle Relaxers Drug Action

A muscle relaxant is any drug whose action reduces muscle shortening ability, thus decreasing muscle tone. Muscle relaxants affect muscle function in some way to relax muscles into their rest position.

Muscle relaxers are targeted to act on smooth (involuntary) or skeletal (voluntary) muscles. And the action of a muscle relaxant can be directly on the muscle or via various locations of the central nervous system.

Muscle relaxants are most commonly used to treat muscle spasms, which can be associated with numerous other health conditions, for instance:

Muscle relaxants are also used to treat other muscle impacting health conditions, such as:

Muscle relaxers are frequently used in conjunction with anesthesia to cause paralysis during various medical procedures.

Because a muscle relaxant drug action can alter the function of many of your muscles and have a sedative effect, they can cause drowsiness, blurred vision, double vision, dizziness, clumsiness and unsteadiness. Therefore, certain activities, like driving, should be avoided while your body is under the influence of muscle relaxers.

Muscle relaxants can cause other drugs side effects as well, some of the milder ones involve:

Muscle relaxers drug action can cause more serious side effects that may indicate overdose, drug allergy or liver problems. So you’ll need to contact your health care provider ASAP if you experience:

Always inform your prescribing health care provider about all other drugs you take because muscle relaxers can enhance their sedative drug action, particularly antihistamines, antidepressants, sedatives and tranquilizers. Also, make known chronic health problems, especially kidney disease, liver disease, porphyria or epilepsy, before being treated with a muscle relaxant.