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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer
From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: RE: Cramps
Message-ID: <258@bbncc5.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Sep-85 03:35:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncc5.258
Posted: Sun Sep 15 03:35:04 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 01:49:58 EDT
References: <1528@shark.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 29

> My mother spent some time in the hospital with her leg in traction after
> a nasty car accident during which time she developed a tendency to get
> leg cramps. Obviously for a person in traction this is an extreemly
> uncomfortable situation and her doctor prescribed quinine for her. 

Quinine is quite effective for certain types of leg cramps, especially
those which develop in the elderly and occur during the night.
Incidentally, quinine is available without a prescription and is a
component in several 'night cramp relief' nostrums available over the
counter.  It is generally pretty safe, except for patients with myasthenia
gravis, in whom it can severely exacerbate symptoms, stemming directly from
its effect on skeletal muscle.  I can't comment of quinine's efficacy in
preventing the kind of recurrent 'charlie horses' which an earlier netter
reported, because I don't know of any studies which have looked at its
effectiveness in treating muscle cramps in general.

There are other 'muscle relaxants' (a misnomer if there ever was one)
available for use to treat muscle spasm, such as that caused by a bad back.
There is a big market for this stuff, as witnessed by the number of
prescriptions written every year, but it is hard to distinguish in
controlled trials any salutory effect of such drugs from a placebo.
Indeed, most of these drugs are mild tranquilizers and it isn't clear that
ANY sedative (or a hot bath) wouldn't work as well.  Valium (diazepam) is
perhaps the most popular benzodiazepine prescribed for muscle strain.

-- 
/Steve Dyer
{harvard,seismo}!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer
sdyer@bbncc5.ARPA


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