Muscle Relaxant Therapy

Muscle relaxant therapy uses a drug that affects skeletal muscle function and decreases muscle tone, used to alleviate symptoms such as muscle spasms, pain and hyperreflexia. The term covers two major therapeutic groups: neuromuscular blockers, which act by interfering with transmission at the neuromuscular end plate and have no central nervous system activity, often used during surgical procedures and in intensive care and emergency medicine to cause temporary paralysis; and spasmolytics, or centrally acting muscle relaxants, used to alleviate musculoskeletal pain and spasms and to reduce spasticity in a variety of neurological conditions. Although both groups are sometimes grouped together as muscle relaxants, the term is commonly used to refer to spasmolytics alone.