What is Soma?

History of Use

Since the mid-1950s, the North American market for tranquilizing medications has been enormous. Most tranquilizers developed at this time were designed to overcome specific problems that had become apparent in earlier medications. For example, carisoprodol (brand name Soma) was developed because of problems with meprobamate, an older anxiolytic medication that had both high potential for dependence and difficult withdrawals.

The brand name “Soma” refers both to the drink of the gods in Hindu religious literature and to a fictional medication in the dystopic novel
Brave New World
(1932) by Aldous Huxley. Since the late 1950s, the medical and scientific communities have come to recognize that although Soma is an effective skeletal-muscle relaxant, it also has a high potential for abuse, dependence, and illegal purchase.

Effects and Potential Risks

How Soma works in the brain is not well understood, although studies have suggested that it stimulates the receptors for gamma-aminobutyric acid, which in turn prompts overall relaxation of skeletal muscles and then sedation. Because of these two effects, Soma has been frequently prescribed along with anti-inflammatory medications as an aid for muscle sprains.

However effective in the short-term, Soma has significant potential risks. Some users have experienced anterograde amnesia after taking large doses, during which they have driven vehicles or engaged in other dangerous behaviors. Like other tranquilizing medications, Soma can cause dependence; predictably, those who become dependent tend to take larger doses to achieve desired effects, which in turn substantially increases the subsequent risk of cardiac problems, coma, and death. Withdrawal from Soma also is difficult, as its symptoms include increased sensitivity to pain and anxiety, jitteriness, hallucinations, and bizarre behavior.

Bibliography

Bramness, Jørgen G., Svetlana Skurtveit, and Jørg Mørland. “Impairment Due to Intake of Carisoprodol.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 74.3 (2004): 311–18. Print.

Gonzalez, Lorie A., et al. “Carisoprodol-Mediated Modulation of GABAA Receptors: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.” Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 329.2 (2009): 827–37. Print.

Reeves, Roy, et al. “Carisoprodol (Soma): Abuse Potential and Physician Unawareness.” Journal of Addictive Diseases 18.2 (1999): 51–56. Print.

Rossow, Ingeborg, and Jorgen G. Bramness. "The Total Sale of Prescription Drugs with an Abuse Potential Predicts the Number of Excessive Users: A National Prescription Database Study." BMC Public Health 15 (2015): 288. PDF file.

Tone, Andrea. The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Love Affair with Tranquilizers. New York: Basic, 2008. Print.