Switching Meds from Mirapexin to Ropinerole

[keiralee]

Hi All - After many years of using Mirapexin I am finding it increasingly ineffective. I take 3 x 0.088 spaced out during the evening. Although it has never been a cure all it now seems to not help at all. I don't have symptoms during the day because quite frankly I only sit for short times - I feel I need to keep busy. When I do sit in the evening the Mirapexin is now not helping and when I go to bed the RLS really kicks in.

My GP hasn't a clue about RLS but if I request Ropinerole she will prescribe it. I have to wait 3 weeks for an appointment so meantime I was wondering what others think. I wouldn't want to start on the lowest dose so any ideas what might be an effective starting dose.

I would really appreciate some help on this.

[Joolsg]

Ropinirole is another dopamine agonist so I suspect you'd have the same problem with that. I've just gone through withdrawal from Ropinirole as it had stopped working and I had severe rebound and augmentation. Still trying to find the right alternative meds in the right doses to help instead. Have a read of other posts on here about Mirapexin and augmentation so you have more knowledge before you go back to your GP. Use the search engine at the top of the page. The more detailed info you can take with you to the appointment, the better as most GPs haven't got a clue how to treat RLS.

Hope you find an alternative that works for you.

Jools

[LoisTonya]

When I started on .25 of Ropinerole five years ago it worked from the very first dose. Gradually it was necessary to increase it until I got to 1 mg. The neurologist told me to increase again, gradually up to 4mg.

At 1.25 the side effects were unacceptable so I went back to 1 mg.

My only way to cope is to keep busy and to have several short walks each day interspersed with short spells of sitting. Long walks bring on the rls.

I can't sit in the evening and after I take Ropinerole at about 8.45pm the rls gets worse for an hour or more so I save the day's washing up to do at this time. (I don't have a dishwasher.)

[funnyfennel in reply to LoisTonya]

My story is similar to Loistanya, My doctor allowed me to go up to x4mgs of Ropinerole and I was like a zombie until I joined the forum and realised the alternatives. At that time I changed to the patch, but it proved to be too itchy in the end....

[funnyfennel]

A lot of us find a combination of drugs works best. I use 5mg oxycodone as well as x2 pramipexole and also sometimes some Temazepam and/or co-codamol. Also check that you are not taking another medication that is preventing absorbtion...eg. Gaviscon or other gastric calmer. I used Tramadol in the past to reduce my pramipexole and then stopped it .Best of luck.

[keiralee]

Thank you to everyone for their comments x

[lbrosa in reply to keiralee]

I went from Ropinirole 3 mg to Pramipexole 0.25 and would never do it again...I had already augmented on the Ropinirole and it did not take long to augment on the Pramipexole and now I am struggling to wean off the Pramipexole --- this experience is 1000 times worse than before I took any medication for RLS! My Dr did not believe in "augmentation" and kept telling me that the symptoms were worse because my condition was getting worse the older I got and I believed it for quite a time and then started paying more attention to when the RLS would become worse and it was always just a few minutes after taking the Ropinirole and then the same with the Pramipexole! Tonight will be my 3rd night taking only half a Pramipexole and last night I slept nearly one hour at first and then was awake the rest of the night with RLS raging! My thoughts would be to try something different than a dopamine agonist.