Carisoprodol

Carisoprodol, sold under the brand name Soma, among others, is a medication used for musculoskeletal pain. Use is only approved for up to three weeks. Effects generally begin within half an hour and last for up to six hours. It is taken orally. Common side effects include headache, dizziness, and sleepiness. Serious side effect may include addiction, allergic reactions, and seizures. In people with a sulfa allergy certain formulations may result in problems. Safety during pregnancy and breastfeeding is not clear. How it works is not clear. Some of its effects are believed to occur following being converted into meprobamate. Carisoprodol was approved for medical use in the United States in 1959. Its approval in the European Union was withdrawn in 2008. It is available as a generic medication. In 2019, it was the 343rd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 800 thousand prescriptions. In the United States, it is a Schedule IV controlled substance. Carisoprodol is meant to be used along with rest, physical therapy and other measures to relax muscles after strains, sprains and muscle injuries. It comes in tablet format and is taken by the mouth three times a day and before bed. The usual dose of 350 mg is unlikely to engender prominent side effects other than somnolence, and mild to significant euphoria or dysphoria, but the euphoria is generally short-lived due to the fast metabolism of carisoprodol into meprobamate and other metabolites; the euphoria derived is, according to new research, most likely due to carisoprodol's inherent, potent anxiolytic effects that are far stronger than those produced by its primary metabolite, meprobamate, which is often misblamed for the drug-seeking associated with carisoprodol, as carisoprodol itself is responsible for the significantly more intense central nervous system effects than meprobamate alone. Carisoprodol has a qualitatively different set of effects to that of meprobamate (Miltown).