How to Use Muscle Relaxants to Treat Chronic Headaches

Chronic headaches can be debilitating if a good preventative or abortive treatment is not found. Some sufferers of chronic headaches experiment with a wide variety of treatments before finding one that is effective for them. Muscle relaxants are in the toolbox of ways to treat chronic headaches. While they are not effective for all headache sufferers, they can help some.

Things You'll Need

• Medical supervision

Instructions

1. Check your symptoms to determine if your headaches can benefit from muscle relaxants. Tension headaches, which present with all-over constant head pain that worsens throughout the day, are typically the most affected by muscle relaxants, because they are often caused by muscle tension. Doctors also use muscle relaxants to treat migraines on occasion.

2. See a doctor for a diagnosis of your headaches. Even headaches that present with the classic symptoms of tension headaches may not actually be tension headaches, so it's important to have a qualified medical professional examine you, take a medical history and run tests to make a proper diagnosis.

3. Talk to your doctor about what options are available to you to treat your chronic headaches--including muscle relaxants. Your medical history may prevent you from being able to take certain medications due to drug interactions, previous conditions and allergies.

4. Discuss different options for muscle relaxants after you and your doctor decide if they are right for you. The most common type of muscle relaxant prescribed for chronic headaches is tizanidine.

5. Get a liver function test before starting to use tizanidine. While the drug is safe for most people, it can affect the enzymes in the liver and impair its function.

6. Track your progress on muscle relaxants. Keeping track of when you get a headache and how strong the headache was will help you evaluate if the drug therapy is working for you.

7. Get additional liver function tests as you continue to use tizanidine to make sure your liver is working properly and is unaffected by the drug. Under the supervision of your doctor, you can stay on tizanidine indefinitely, because it is not habit-forming.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't get discouraged if muscle relaxants are not effective in preventing your headaches. There are other preventative drug therapies, such as beta blockers and antidepressants, that may be more effective for you.

• Alternative ways to treat chronic headaches are available if you can't find a drug therapy that helps. Alternative treatments include acupuncture, homeopathy, acupressure, biofeedback and others.

• While tizanidine is generally well tolerated by mosts, it does have some side effects, including dizziness, drowsiness and dry mouth.

• Avoid self-medicating with over-the-counter muscle relaxants like ibuprofen. Overuse of ibuprofen can cause serious complications and may be habit-forming.