Neuro patch with madopar

[PSZ28]

Hi My mum has pd for 5 yrs now and she is slowing down..walking ..very slow.

Current medication- madopar 100mg 3 x per day .

Neurologist has now recommended Neuro patch..to assist with her pd .

Has anyone experienced this patch with there treatment.

[park_bear]

Neupro is a dopamine agonist. This class of medications has been commonly associated with severe adverse effects, although some people do okay on them. You might want to consider simply increasing her madopar dosage, and/or high-dose thiamine: highdosethiamine.org/

[sharoncrayn]

Neuro transdermal patch = rotigoline, which, as pointed out by someone else, is a dopamine agonist. It is not commonly associated "with severe adverse effects" as some on this forum believe who lump all DAs into one boat. It is a erroneous conclusion to do so, and they should know better by now.

Neuro is a "NON-ergoline" DA in transdermal form for continual release of the drug for treating early signs of PD, especially motor functions (relevant to your mum's situation). In contrast to non-ergoline DAs, some scientific research suggests "ergoline" DAs show a tendency towards causing valvular heart disease and increasing someone's existing tendency towards compulsive behaviors. This conclusion seems unverifiable so far across ALL DAs in total other than the DA drug, Pergoglide which has now been downgraded. Apparently, this drug is a exception to the possible beneficial role of DAs in treating early symptoms of PD.

However, if your mum is or has been associated with coronary heart disease or with one or more forms of compulsive behavior, I would double check with your neuro to explicitly inform him/her that she has/had a history of coronary heart disease or compulsive behavior patterns. If so, he will probably pull the drug from her protocol.

In addition this class of DAs are generally assigned to "early" PD patients. At 5 years in, and Madopar 3x per day, it would seem (conjecture on my part), she has moved out of "early" PD. So, ask your neuro "why" this patch now?

Sharon

[gwendolinej]

Hi there, I'll give you my husband's experience with the Neupro Patch, which was very positive.

My husband was first diagnosed in 2013 with Lewy Body dementia and was attending the Movement Disorder Clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne Australia) and was on Madapar.

One of the neurologists suggested trying the Neupro Patch, as he'd "seen it work". Within a few weeks his diagnosis was changed to Parkinsons. The change in my husband was amazing. His apathy was gone. His memory was restored and he was generally feeling good.

Almost all the information on the patch talks about the improvement in motor skills, but in this case it was the non-motor skills that improved.

There can be side effects, but as long as you and your doctor know what they are, you can monitor them. The thing that a lot of people react to seems to be addictions, as in gambling, sex, etc. Our neurologist has had to take one patient off it for this reason.

The patch stopped working about a year ago. He's now on Xadago, but it's not helping as much as we'd like.

Recently I started him on Mannitol, a diabetic sweetener. If you are interested, look at my profile and you should see what I've written about it. If not, just let me know and I'll fill you in. The bottom line is that he's greatly improved mentally again. It may mean that the patch is now working. Who knows, The research suggests mannitol gets thru the blood/brain barrier and maybe it takes the meds with it . It's certainly used in hospitals to treat brain injuries.

This disease is very complex, and what works for one, doesn't for another .High dose B1 sent his blood pressure through the ceiling, but has helped many others. It's all trial and error ..drugs and supplements alike.

Good luck, keep in touch.

[sharoncrayn]

Here is my slightly different perspective on Mannitol, but not much different...

Mannitol is a supplement that can often work because I would consider its positive effect in terms of functioning as a BBBD (disrupts), which certainly assists almost all large molecule drugs pass through the BBB more easily as long as the permeability of the BBB is "not" compromised or damage (which occurs in many PD patients as they begin to approach or enter mid stage PD)..

When the BBB's permeability is compromised, I feel Mannitol loses much of its effectiveness. Hence, the variability of PD individuals and their response to Mannitol particularly as they progress.

No human CTs support my contention about mid stage PD and the loss of BBB permeability which is understandable. But it still is something to consider.

Sharon