- Home
- Disability Categories
- Autism
- Deaf-Blindness
- Deafness
- Emotional Behavioral Disorder
- Hearing Impairment or Deafness
- Cognitively Disabled
- Multiple Disabilities
- Orthopedic Impairment
- Other Health Impairment
- Specific Learning Disability
- Speech and Language Disability or Impairment
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Visual Impairment and Blindness
Medications
Neuromotor impairments
Degenerative diseases,
Musculoskeletal disorders
- Medications that can lessen the tightness of muscles may be used to improve functional abilities, treat pain and manage complications related to spasticity. It's important to talk about the risk of drug treatments with your doctor and discuss whether medical treatment is appropriate for your child's needs. The selection of medications depends on whether the problem affects only certain muscles (isolated) or the whole body (generalized). Drug treatments may include the following:
- When spasticity is isolated to one muscle group, your doctor may recommend injections of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) directly into the muscle, nerve or both. Severe weakness is a possible side effect. There also is some evidence of more-serious side effects, including difficulty breathing and swallowing.
- If the whole body is affected, oral muscle relaxants may relax stiff, contracted muscles. These drugs include diazepam (Diazepam Intensol, Valium), tizanidine (Zanaflex), dantrolene (Dantrium), and baclofen. There is some risk of dependency with diazepam, so it's not recommended for long-term use. Its side effects include drowsiness, weakness and drooling. Side effects of tizanidine include sleepiness, weakness, low blood pressure and liver damage. Side effects of dantrolene and baclofen include sleepiness. Baclofen may also be pumped directly into the spinal cord with a tube. The pump is surgically implanted under the skin of the abdomen.
Degenerative diseases,
- Corticosteroids, such as prednisone, may help improve muscle strength and delay the progression of certain types of muscular dystrophy. But prolonged use of these types of drugs can weaken bones and increase fracture risk.
Musculoskeletal disorders
- Medications to increase the body's level of serotonin and norepinephrine (neurotransmitters that modulate sleep, pain, and immune system function) are prescribed in low doses. Some of the medicines used to aid sleep