Ropinirole: Morning or Evening

[JH23]

Hi, I'm a 58 year old diagnosed with PD in March 2023, C/L didn't agree with me and I am now trying Ropinirole. I am taking 6mg extended release daily, at present I take the medication in the morning and suffer mild side effects which improve as the day progresses. My question is should I start taking my medication at night so I sleep the side effects off or will I get no benefit from the medication during the day. Has anyone any experience of doing this?

[johntPM]

Ropinirole has a half-life of 6 hours. So, if you take it in the morning, it will have its maximum effect in the afternoon; and an evening dose's maximum value will be in the middle of the night. If you take it every day, it will reach steady state in about a week. with only a small difference between the two procedures.

Out of interest, the half-life of levodopa taken with carbidopa is approximately 90 minutes.

[JH23 in reply to johntPM]

Interesting, thanks for the reply JohnPM, much appreciated

[johntPM in reply to JH23]

You may wish to use the app that I've written to visualize the changes in the effectiveness of your medications during the day.

parkinsonsmeasurement.org/t...

[JH23 in reply to johntPM]

Thank you, thats really useful and a lot of work/thought has gone in to it.