Volume: 12 Issue: 2
Year: 2024, Page: 52-55, Doi: https://doi.org/10.47799/pimr.1202.10
Received: June 26, 2024 Accepted: June 17, 2025 Published: Aug. 20, 2024
Introduction: Spasticity is a pervasive and debilitating condition. Anti-spastic medications like Baclofen and Diazepam are most commonly used for spasticity management. Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy of Baclofen with that of Diazepam in the management of spasticity following acquired spinal cord injuries. Methods: In this randomised open-label study involving 60 patients, 30 patients received 5 mg of oral Baclofen thrice daily and 30 patients received 5 mg of oral Diazepam thrice daily for the management of spasticity. The extent of spasticity was measured by Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). The efficacy of these drugs was measured with the mean improvement in the above parameters on days 7, 14, 28, 56 and 90 from the start of pharmacotherapy. Results: Baseline muscle spasticity scores were comparable. At the endpoint, mean improvement in tone of right and left hip flexors (1.43 vs. 0.87), hip adductors (1.30 vs. 0.87), knee flexors (0.80 vs. 0.37), ankle plantar flexors (0.80 vs. 0.37) and ankle dorsiflexors (1.23 vs. 0.93) were significantly higher in Baclofen group (p<0.05), while the tone of right and left hip abductors, hip and knee extensors showed no significant difference among the groups. Conclusion: Baclofen was found to be superior to Diazepam in terms of efficacy, especially for flexor spasticity of lower limbs in acquired spinal cord injuries
Keywords: Spinal Cord Injury, Muscle Disorder, Clinical Trial, Accidents, Muscle Relaxants
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©2024 (Hemalatha Thiyagarajan) et al. This is an open-access journal, and arƟcles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Thiyagarajan H, Kadhir Veluchamy K, Rajagopal S, Mahato RK. ComparaƟve Efficacy of Baclofen and Diazepam in Treating Spasticity Following Acquired Spinal Cord Injuries: A Randomized Controlled Trial. PerspecƟves in Medical Research. 2024;12(2):52-55 DOI: 10.47799/pimr.1202.10