Cut Rotigotine patch in half

[conditioncritical]

Hello I cannot find 2mg Rotigotine neupro patch, but I found 4mg, can I cut it in half?

[Hidden]

Yeah _ I've been on 2mg and told Dr I wanted to try off them he said I could cut in half rather than get 1mgs. So cut away, (just don't do like I did and then only take off half of the backing!!).

[conditioncritical in reply to Hidden]

thanks. Yesterday was my first neupro patch ever and at 4mg it did very good job, not eliminated completely rls but at a great percentage and I slept very well. Lets see what happens at 2mg

[Hidden in reply to conditioncritical]

Where did you get your neupro patches from..?? It doesnt sound like you got them from your doctor. 4mg is to high to take, the highest recommended dose is 3mg.

[conditioncritical in reply to Hidden]

I just bought them from a pharmacy, but where I live are not popular and the pharmacies get limited supply and wasn't possible to get 1 or 2 mg

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

+1 on what Elisse has said - 3mg is the highest dose for RLS. I would cut it in quarters to start with then if the 1mg dose isn't working cut in half and try 2mg, you run the risk of side-effects and augmentation starting at such a high dose.

Please also make sure you are very VERY familiar with the side-effects. People's lives have been ruined with them!!!

[conditioncritical in reply to Hidden]

thanks. I am middle aged and i have been to neurologist and I have a psychiatrist that I visit every couple of months mainly for prescriptions and to discuss my alcohol withdrawal (now a year passed successfully).

Honestly, until recently I was convinced that my problems were psychological. I got a awful reactions when I upped sertraline to 100mg and now I am at 50mg with intention to get off of it after a month or so.

Unfortunately the psy didn't give proper attention to my rls although he concluded that I have it and sertraline makes it worse. So now in the end of the week I am meeting with a new neurologist and before the visit and since where I live I can buy any Dopamine Agonist without prescription, I decided to try before visit the new doc.

I used yesterday the 4mg patch since it was the only one I could find locally and as I didn't know if it was safe to split it (extended release pills are not safe to split for example) and as I was anxious to see if my feet will rest and go confident to the neurologist that my condition is neurological and the dopamine agonist help me rest.

[Hidden in reply to conditioncritical]

Congratulations on getting away from alcohol - not a good drug and definitely not good for RLS sufferers.

You are right about the extended release formulations - don't half/split them but the patches are fine, as said go back and try and start at the lowest possible dose to avoid any problems in the long term and please read and reread the side-effects.

[Seamus17 in reply to Hidden]

I am on 14 mg neupro patch no side effects I know of and doesn't work every night also on 10 mg zolpederm.

[conditioncritical in reply to Hidden]

Seamus17, as I am right now, with 50mg sertraline, the 10mg of zolpidem are working half of the time, yesterday I took one at 30 minutes before midnight and at 1:00 AM, I augmented it with half a benzo to sleep.

After a year of sporadic using zolpidem is not working, I wish I could take quetiapine for sleep but more than 25mg gives me rls in combination with zoloft.

[conditioncritical in reply to Hidden]

@raffs, thanks, now after some research I am thinking to suggest to doc to start with gabapentin first as it seems its the 1st medication step for rls

[DisneS]

Do'nt know about cutting but I have 2mg and 1 mg patches from my doctor so surely yours could get them for you