What type of analgesic can I take if I'm also taking baclofen?

Question

My wife is taking baclofen 10mg. She takes 1/2 tablet three times daily. I was wondering, what type of pain reliever can she take whenever she needs to? We forgot to ask the doctor about that. I checked online, and found out that Ibuprofen interacts with baclofen in a bad way, but I could not find anything about acetaminophen or aspirin or other types of pain relievers.

Answer 1

There are three classes, I guess you could call them, of analgesics (or pain killers).  Aspirin has the most interactions in drugs and is only recommended for adults.  NSAIDS are next.  These include ibuprofen, naproxen, and ketoprofen.  They still have interactions but are safer to use in patients.  Children at a certain age can even take ibuprofen and naproxen.  Acetaminophen has the least interactions and pregnant women can even take it.  Acetaminophen is the safest analgesic to use because it works centrally in the body, not peripherally like the other two.

Here is what I found on Lexi-Comp a professional pharmacy database:

Summary Ibuprofen may enhance the adverse/toxic effect of Baclofen. Severity Moderate Reliability Rating Poor

Patient Management No action required.

Discussion Case report. A baclofen-stable patient (20 mg three times daily) experienced signs and symptoms of toxicity within 3 days of initiating ibuprofen therapy (600 mg three times daily).1 The cause of the observed events is unclear. Ibuprofen may have caused renal dysfunction which in turn may have reduced baclofen elimination. This is only report implicating such an interaction.

I searched two other databases, Clinical Pharmacology and Facts and Comparisons and it said that there were no interactions between the two.

I checked all three and not one of them came up with a drug-drug interaction between acetaminophen and baclofen.  So if she is concerned about taking the ibuprofen have her take acetaminophen.  If you still have concerns, I would contact your doctor.

Good Luck!!!