Sinemet dose intervals

Is anybody here taking their Sinemet less than four hours between doses? I’m finding that lately taking it every three and a half hours reduces my off time and was just wondering how other PWPs manage their doses and how it works for them. Thanks. Blessings to all.

[johntPM]

Roughly speaking I take 5 Stalevo 75 mg (Sinemet + entacapone) per day, at an interval of 3 hours. In practice, I don't follow the schedule. Rather, I use "dynamic dosing", where I take a dose as required. The trick is to interpret the body's signals so that the new dose kicks in just before the old dose goes off. I also take 8 mg ropinirole and 1 mg rasagiline per day.

[Resano in reply to johntPM]

I share the idea of playing with the body'signals within reasonable intervals of less than half an hour even though such a tricky dependence-inducing medication also has its own powerful physiological clock which takes weeks to get tuned by expert's hands.

[theAfrican]

The more Parkinson’s disease progress with time the shorter the intervals.

[Hidden]

Yes, I am under 4 hours. I have a dosing plan that specifies each of the 4 dose amounts, and the 3 inter-dose intervals. I adjust these amounts (and they are not all the same) such that I don't go off, with roughly 15 minute safety margin (ie, the idea being, a dose can be up to 15 minutes late, before I go off due to its lateness).

[matthias_baum]

During the day I take l dopa 150 to200 mg each 3 hours (up to 1,2g/day). After 3 hours I am coming into an off pbase , which is difficult to leave. I THEn use apomoŕphine s.c.. In Germany some neurologists recommend 600mg levodopa /day. So some patients Cannot feel the full Effect of the dopa therapy and you Can find a Lot of underdopaminidized Patienten,who are anxious about the nessescety to take dopa in higher doses.

[PositivePen]

I take my dose of 62.5 mg every 1.5 hours occasionally I can manage 3 hours ! I also take Rasagiline. I had DBS last year but the only benefit I have gained from this surgery is that I have halved my meds.

[Aleagles]

I take 100 mg of levodopa every 3 hours at 10.00 13.00 1600 and 19.00 plus two controlled release overnight. .

[hercules957]

I take Sinemet at 8:00, 11:00, 14:30, 18:00 and 23:00 to prevent off times.

[gingerj]

I take stalevo 100mg every 2 hours. If i forget i can tell within 1/2 hour and have to take my next dose asap to reduce the amount of time i struggle with dystonia before it kicks in. If im busy rushing about on my delivery at work, i do sometimes manage to get to 3 hours.

[eschneid]

Just want to say big fan of this site and all involved especially the main peops that give so much of their time even though it's repetitive for them.

I am 14 years into this PD fun and 2 1/2 years ago it hit me like a freight train. Did not know what was happening, but realized my internal dopamine production took a major dip. Felt like what I imagined PTSD must be like. Could not watch anything too stressful or too loud on television as if I had a brain injury. (Shout out to Niggs who's post at the time he was suffering and searching kept me from feeling alone hope you are ok)...Canceled a Caribbean vacation due to anxiety, which was a first and was in a panicky, vicious cycle of needing more meds, but protein was taking 3-5 hours to allow meds to work and I dropped from 185 down to 169 in a month, not good!

Took 2/3 long months to right the ship and 6 months later was traveling around Italy for 2 weeks, beautiful. I am playing basketball twice/week competitively in an over 50 group plus walking 3-4 miles or cycling 80-90 rpms on a stationary bike on other days. Even though things are harder these days, I understand mind/body much better.

Back to your post, I dose when I feel 'off' coming on, which these days is 2-3 hours. If I am home, I will push it to 3 hrs and deal with more discomfort versus being out to dinner or a longer event where dosing is 2-2 1/2. I am approaching 2g/day of Levadopa, which is usually dosed as one 25/100 c/l plus 60,100,160,200 or 260 (dinner) mg of Levadopa from mucuna capsules. At bedtime I take one 50/200 er which gets me on average 4-5 hours of sleep and after a smaller first dose of the day, usually 6:30 am, 1/2 of 25/100 c/l + 160 mg from mucuna, I'm comfortable enough to meditate, stretch or grab an extra hour or two of sleep since I no longer work.

My dyskinesia has been low level for 2g Ldopa and recently started Amantadine which has eliminated it entirely. Will start phasing out Ropinirole to see if Amantadine replaces it seamlessly even though they work differently.

Thanks for "listening".

Eric from NJ

[KERRINGTON in reply to eschneid]

Hello, I would appreciate in hearing how are you coming along with this . I Imagine you've made some changes over the past few ears.