🧠 Nervous System🟢 BasicMuscle Relaxants

Centrally Acting Muscle Relaxants

Drugs that reduce muscle spasm and stiffness by acting on the brain and spinal cord, rather than on the muscle itself.

Key points

Centrally acting muscle relaxants reduce painful muscle spasm and spasticity by acting on the spinal cord and brain, not on the muscle directly.
They differ from the neuromuscular blockers used in anaesthesia, which paralyse muscle at the nerve-muscle junction.
Baclofen acts on GABA-B receptors in the spinal cord and eases the spasticity of conditions such as multiple sclerosis and spinal injury.
Tizanidine acts on alpha-2 receptors to reduce spasticity, and diazepam enhances GABA to relax muscle and to calm.
Their common unwanted effects are drowsiness and weakness, because they damp the nervous system broadly.

Memory trick

Centrally acting muscle relaxants ease spasm and spasticity through the cord and brain, not the muscle (unlike anaesthetic neuromuscular blockers): baclofen (GABA-B), tizanidine (alpha-2), diazepam (GABA); side effects are drowsiness and weakness.

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🧠 Nervous System🟢 BasicMuscle Relaxants

Centrally Acting Muscle Relaxants

Drugs that reduce muscle spasm and stiffness by acting on the brain and spinal cord, rather than on the muscle itself.

Key points

Centrally acting muscle relaxants reduce painful muscle spasm and spasticity by acting on the spinal cord and brain, not on the muscle directly.
They differ from the neuromuscular blockers used in anaesthesia, which paralyse muscle at the nerve-muscle junction.
Baclofen acts on GABA-B receptors in the spinal cord and eases the spasticity of conditions such as multiple sclerosis and spinal injury.
Tizanidine acts on alpha-2 receptors to reduce spasticity, and diazepam enhances GABA to relax muscle and to calm.
Their common unwanted effects are drowsiness and weakness, because they damp the nervous system broadly.

Memory trick

All of Anaesthesiology More Nervous System