People who experience symptoms like cramps, spasms, and other similar events will often be prescribed muscle relaxant drugs, making it a pretty common drug. A recent study showed that about 18.5 percent of patients use muscle relaxants in treating conditions like back problems, whether with COX-2 inhibitors or NSAIDs.
However, since the drug is pretty common to treat such conditions, many are wondering if these relaxant drugs can show up on drug tests. So if you’re one of these curious about the longevity of muscle relaxant drugs in our system, keep reading.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into muscle relaxers — how long they will stay in your system, and how long the side effects last. Let’s take a look!
How Long Do Muscle Relaxers Last in Your System?
Muscle relaxer medication is often given to patients experiencing back pain and other muscle-related symptoms affecting different parts of their body. However, a common question is how long do they work and last until the effects wear off.
When it comes to understanding the life of a drug, it’s important to consider its half-life to know how long it’ll stay effective in your system. Unfortunately, when it comes to muscle relaxers, there is no specific time frame mentioned with the drug. You should still know that there are factors that impact how long chemicals stay in your system.
One of the significant factors that impact the period of muscle relaxer chemicals is the type of drug used. Seeing as it’s a common form of treatment, there are a plethora of variants of muscle relaxers in the market that use different chemicals. With that, you’ll get different kinds of side effects, half-life periods, and how long they’ll stay in your body.
Besides that, the dosage is another factor to consider that holds a relatively huge impact on how long the drug stays in your system. But other than that, here are other factors you should consider:
- Sex actually plays a role in how your liver enzymes process your medication;
- Age provides an overview of which muscle relaxer can stay in a person’s system. This is because as you age, your body functions differently, especially your kidneys and liver;
- Bodyweight also plays a part since a larger person may require a higher dose;
- The well-being of a person can also impact the longevity of the drug in your system since it will be harder to metabolize and flush out if your body functions are weak;
List of Muscle Relaxers
As mentioned earlier, because muscle relaxers are commonly prescribed to people, there are many muscle relaxant options on the market today. These include the following:
- Atracurium (Tracrium);
- Baclofen (Baclosan, Lioresal);
- Carisoprodol (Soma);
- Chlorzoxazone (Parafon Forte, Remular);
- Tizanidine (Zanaflex);
- Succinylcholine (Anectine, Sucostrin);
- Pancuronium (Pavulon);
- Cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril);
- Dantrolene (Dantrium);
- Metaxalone (Skelaxin);
- Orphenadrine (Flexon, Norflex, Norgesic);
- Quinine;
- Succinylcholine (Anectine, Sucostrin);
Flexeril can take 5.5 days to 16.5 days to clear out of your body, while a dose of Soma could take about four days to be eliminated in your system.
Muscle Relaxers on Drug Tests
Now that we know the factors determining how long muscle relaxants stay in your system, let’s circle back to the first question we asked earlier: will muscle relaxers show up on a drug test? All-natural relaxers are not a big concern as compared to pharmaceutical products. That’s why we’ll be focusing on the factors of the latter.
The fact is, muscle relaxers can get a person high, but this hasn’t been specifically tested. But even with that, some people would still want to know how long the medication can stay in your system and if it will make you test positive on specific chemicals.
Removing Muscle Relaxers Faster
Although it’s commonly suggested that you can flush out the drugs out of your system, you should note that drugs have a specific half-life, and again, flushing them out of your system will be impacted by several factors. But still, some things are worth trying if you want to eliminate the drug from your body.
- Drinking a ton of water and hydrating your body is a great way to speed up the elimination process of chemicals in your body;
- Exercise is another great way to flush out the drugs from your system as it boosts metabolism and releases the toxins in your body;
- Avoiding certain foods that slow down your metabolism is key to eliminating the drug in your body much faster;
But when it comes to dealing with a person who’s grown dependent on muscle relaxers, professional detoxification may be advised to rid the chemicals from their body. Additionally, professional addiction treatment should be provided as well to empower users from continuing the habit.
How Long Do Side Effects Last?
The different medications used for the variants of muscle relaxers will also affect the drug’s chemical structure and how it will affect your brain. Typically, muscle relaxers will work as central nervous system depressants, making you experience a sedative effect or prevent your nerves from triggering pain signals to your brain.
Often, the onset period works quite fast, and the effects will last from four to six hours. But if you’re wondering what to expect if you take any of these relaxers, here are the common side effects that you may experience:
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Irritability
- Agitation
- Nervousness
- Headaches
- Dry mouth
- Decreased blood pressure
Muscle Relaxer Abuse
Muscle relaxers can be addictive; that’s why it comes with no surprise that they have a potential for abuse, especially with prolonged use. This is because the more that you muscle relaxers and if you’re boosted your intake frequency, you increase your tolerance and physical dependence.
In that regard, muscle relaxers are intended for short-term treatment and shouldn’t be prescribed for two to three weeks. But sadly, some people take relaxers alone or even combine them with illicit drugs for nonmedical purposes. These reasons include the side effects they experience, such as euphoria and dissociation.
With that being said, one of the most used diverted drugs in the US is Soma. Not falling far behind is Flexeril, and in 2010 alone, there were roughly 12,000 emergency rooms visited related to Flexeril.
Muscle relaxer abuse can result in severe dangers and put a person at risk of overdose, which could lead to:
- Hallucinations
- Stupor
- Shock
- Seizures
- Respiratory depression
- Cardiac arrest
- Coma
- Death
Alcohol and Muscle Relaxers
Alcohol, like muscle relaxers, can depress the nervous system. But when you combine these two substances, it may lead to extreme side effects and dangerous symptoms, such as:
- Urine retention
- Blurred vision
- Extreme drowsiness
- Extreme dizziness
- Low blood pressure
- Fainting
- Memory problems
- Liver damage
- Risk of overdose
Because these symptoms are extreme, it is not recommended to dry or operate heavy machinery if you’re under the influence of muscle relaxants. Additionally, drinking alcohol while on muscle relaxers should be avoided as well to prevent the risk of accidents.
The Bottom Line: Take Muscle Relaxers with Caution and as Prescribed By Your Doctor
Because it’s so common, many people think that muscle relaxants are pretty safe. However, you can put yourself at risk of experiencing volatile side effects and even grow tolerance and dependency without the proper dosage and use.