I am in the shitty position of finding out somebody, in a very small group of possibles, stole some pain pills from me and replaced them with mostly baclofen. I understand that this is a muscle relaxant. I know that one of these people has at least in the past definitely been on baclofen.
My question is, how likely is it that somebody else is too? The person j suspect has recovered from serious life-altering injuries and definitely has long term issues from that. Is this the kind of serious drug that you would only see in somebody’s medicine cabinet like that, or is it the sort f thing a lot of people might have around?
Consider the possibility that the person who was on baclofen may themselves be a victim of the thief. For example, the thief could have stolen the baclofen for the purpose of substituting it for your pills and thereby throw off the investigation.
It’s common enough that I can remember how to spell it and what drug class it’s in (skeletal muscle relaxant; GABA analogue) without looking it up. My patients on baclofen have chronic pain that isn’t handled with other pain meds. It’s not always a history of trauma. It’s also used for pain associated with MS, and other muscular pain and spasms, including rheumatic disorders like arthritis, lupus and ankylosing spondylitis.
I see Vicodin and Norco most, then Tramadol, then Naproxen and Iboprofen and then Baclofen.
I see Baclofen more often than I see Tizanadine or Cyclobenzaprine.
Baclofen made $34 million in sales in 2013, up from $19 million in 2012, so its use is increasing.
I don’t think it was that kind of situation (not an overnight thing, not a thing where people were anywhere but the dining room and the bathroom) plus it just wasn’t that smart a theft. It was weirdly full of addict thinking. Hard to explain without possibly giving identifying details and I know Google is all up in here but it makes the most sense that these pills were owned by the thief. For one thing, the second thing Google suggested for baclofen when I found out what it was was “baclofen high” - wouldn’t you think most drug thieves who don’t have a source there would have kept that too?
WhyNot, that definitely seems to confirm there’s only one strong contender.
Eta- I’m assuming the reason that was subbed and not just aspirin or something is that if I did go for it there’s a strong effect that I could have mistaken for my actual pills. Which i haven’t used in a long time anyway.
Too late to edit - just to confirm, WhyNot, in your opinion that would not be a drug somebody would have been prescribed for, I dunno, a pulled muscle or a recurring running injury or back strain, right? This is a way bigger gun?
I haven’t seen it prescribed for an acute injury like that, but of course that doesn’t mean it isn’t ever done. Remember that my patients are either elderly or disabled or both. They’re not really the running types. So I’ve got a skewed patient population coloring my experience.
If someone told me they were prescribed Baclofen for an acute injury, I’d probably verify it with his doctor, to make sure the patient understood why they were taking it. I’d be inclined to suspect there was a more serious or underlying issue that the patient didn’t clearly understand. However, if the doctor verified it was for something acute, I wouldn’t think he was bonkers.
Yeah, unless possibly somebody’s been stealing elsewhere from an elderly relative (which doesn’t really make sense) I am pretty sure this is all I need to know. I don’t like the idea of just assuming the person with the major injury must have a pill problem but… I was at like 90% sure before but you can go ahead and bump that up to close enough to certain for government work.
It’s a useful drug for spasticity such as is often seen with spinal cord injuries or MS. In such patients it’s often dosed by implanted pump which send the medication directly into the CNS. This can work great, but abrupt cessation in such cases can be fatal.
It can also be helpful for short-term use in carefully selected acute muscle strains with spasm. It tends to be overprescribed for chronic musculo-skeletal pain, IMHO. It is frequently abused. 99% of my prescribing of it is for the aforementioned patients with spinal cord injuries or MS.
So, I’m a little confused. While I’m betting the OP is correct in her conclusions, why would somebody swap a frequently abused drug for, I presume, another frequently abused drug? Is the drug that’s being swapped for stronger/more abused? Is it like, say, swapping Vicodin for Percocet or something like that?
In the world of abusable medicine, opioids like hydrocodone, oxycodone, etc. are gold, and baclofen would be copper. Or maybe zinc. Many addicts would use baclofen to try to blunt the side-effects of opioid withdrawal.
That’s knowledge I’m glad I don’t have first-hand experience with. (The only time I’ve been prescribed Vicodin, for a wisdom tooth removal, I didn’t even end up finishing the bottle, because it didn’t seem to do anything for me that a tylenol didn’t, but I understand everyone’s chemistry is a bit different.)
I’m still learning the care and feeding of intrathecal pumps, and refills terrify me. They won’t even let us bring Narcan along for the Dilaudid pumps, which boggles my mind. I just pray I never get a pocket fill. I’m that annoyingly slow nurse pulling back every 2mL to make sure I’m in the reservoir.
It was percocet that she stole. Which is why I’m pretty damned sure it had to be her because if it was somebody who DIDN’T have access to baclofen why give it away? Has to be somebody who has a stable supply of that.
Well, and also the way it was stolen was really fucking stupid and everybody else at the dinner table is a lot smarter than that.
ETA - okay, here’s what happened. I used to have ten Percoset from almost a year ago. I know I had ten specifically then because I felt really stupid for counting them, but I had the odd thought that, huh, wasn’t (other friend) weirded out that this person cheerfully mentioned having gone through his bathroom cabinets, and who does that? And I don’t have anything in there that… huh. couldn’t hurt to know how many I have of those. And the next day I didn’t even go in to check, I went looking for something else and noticed things misplaced.
So instead of ten I have fourteen, and the part of the label that tells you how many has been mysteriously torn off. When I look the pills up it’s 13 baclofen and one steroid. WTF? Normal people who aren’t drug addicts, when they go looking for drugs they haven’t used in a year and can’t find them, assume they’ve misplaced them - why not take the whole bottle? Why suspiciously alter the label? It’s weird-ass addict thinking, I think - I’d just assume that what was in the bottle is what was supposed to be. And then after all that why put the wrong amount in? (Unless, and this is possible, she ALSO stole from me BEFORE, because I don’t think I used that many of those pills back then. But I’m not sure.)
And how the fuck does she know she didn’t put something in there that would be dangerous for us? My god it makes me furious. Obviously the trust thing, the guest thing, but she endangered us and then I had to call her SO and tell her that I’m pretty damned fucking sure his moron asshole verbally abusive piece of shit woman stole drugs for me and now I think I officially need something for my motherfucking blood pressure because everything goes red when I think about it. Wonder if I can steal that from somebody.
Some people don’t like some drugs and do like others. I’ve never had (that I can recall) baclofen, but I hate cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril), to the point that I’ll just say ‘no thanks’ if that’s what the doc offers, and trust me, I’ll typically take anything the doc offers. But muscle relaxers, while abused by some, make me feel like a zombie for days.
Vicodin (or any opiate containing drug). Totally different drug.
It’s like asking coke head why he’d trade his 12 pack of Miller Lite for the dime bag of coke. Well, he likes coke.
I recall reading many years ago that the bathroom is the worst place for meds. Most bottles say to keep the cool and dry, but your bathroom tends to be hot and wet (from showers). So I keep mine in a hall linen closet. It also has the added benefit of keeping prying eyes away from them. Furthermore, anything worth taking/stealing I keep hidden away if I’m having people over that I don’t know. It’s just easier to go toss the bottle of Fioricet and muscle relaxers in the basement for the night than find out two weeks later that they’re gone.
Baclofen is a very common drug in the spinal cord injury community. It’s used as the primary treatment for spasticity, which is a common and quite bothersome side effect of many spinal cord injuries. However, I’ve never heard of anyone abuse it or get a high from it or even enjoy it. Baclofen is tolerated because it works for the spasticity, but the side effects from the medicine are not desirable.
Before I listed my house for sale, the Realtor advised that if I had any abusable drugs in the house, that I take them with me whenever the house was being shown. I did (about a dozen generic Vicodins from when I broke my toe a few years previously) and already knew to do that.
At the time, I kept my meds in a hall linen closet; I now store them in the cabinet of my entertainment center with my old VHS tapes. The one exception are two prescriptions I take every day; I keep those in my purse so I always have them with me.
Just a caution on your sleuthing skills. Being robbed is such a personal betrayal that it’s only natural to cast ones eye upon the available possible suspects and play Sherlock. But please be very cautious. When you say things like how obviously it must be A, because of X and Y, which everybody knows! Or, no one else would be so obvious or stupid etc., you’re overlooking that any other player, could easily be taking advantage of knowing whom everyone will assume it must be.
As in, I am going to opportunistically take what I want, knowing a more likely/obvious drug user is in attendance and all suspicion will fall on them!
Well, yes, that’s true. I agree. However, somebody sure stole them. And that somebody, whoever it was, is not coming back into my house. Plus, my prime suspect’s SO is a dear friend and needs to know his fucking evil bitch might also be a drug addict.
Everybody else who was there I know a LOT better, and they’re all good friends of mine. Honestly I don’t have people over, really, ever! Except every so often very close friends. So that’s part of why I’m so upset. And I do realize that all sorts of people have suburban mom pill habits that nobody suspects. However, with the rest of these people it would really be a shock. The kind of shock where I just wouldn’t believe it without fingerprints and a purse full of stolen drugs.
(The only time I’ve been prescribed Vicodin, for a wisdom tooth removal, I didn’t even end up finishing the bottle, because it didn’t seem to do anything for me that a tylenol didn’t, but I understand everyone’s chemistry is a bit different.)