What is naltrexone

[Goodfairy]

Husband has restless legs.is on ropinerole and quickly reaches augmentation stage.then goes on to neupro patches.awful skin irritation.am new to this site.

Would like to know more about the John Hopkins expert who is world renowned.

Does alcohol stop the medication working well.does it block the receptors?

His sleep is awful.

Thanks.grateful for any replies.

Goodfairy.

[ookla]

If he's augmenting on ropinerole, the neupro patch isn't really going to help... they're both DAs. In my experience, the only thing that was able to combat the augmentation from DAs was oxycodone and tramadol. Is there any chance your husband could get one of those? Please get him off the DAs. Please.

[involuntarydancer in reply to ookla]

Yes, I think Ookla is right. Neupro won’t do much good if he was already augmented on a d/a.

If you go to the Johns Hopkins university hospital website you will find the rls section and there you will find posts by Dr Christopher Early and others. They are super. You could also look at the website of Dr. Mark Buchfuhrer (rlshelp.org). He is another expert.

Has your husband had his serum ferritin checked? Low iron can exacerbate rls. Get the actual figure - ‘normal’ can be as low as 20 which is far too low for rls sufferers who should aim to be over 100.

Naltrexone is a drug used to treat addictions - I don’t know the precise mechanics of how it works. At low doses (when it is often referred to as ‘LDN’ - for Low Dose Naltrexone) it has been found to be beneficial for a range of disorders. There is some very tentative evidence that it could be helpful for rls. You could try googling it. I am trying it but it can take many months for the full benefits to be felt.

Your husband could also try dietary changes - removing dairy and gluten (sometimes also sugar) has been helpful for some very intractable cases.

Other drug options are gabapentin/pregabalin and also opioids.

You truly are good fairy to do this research for your husband. It would be a cold day in hell when my husband would do as much for me.

[Goodfairy in reply to involuntarydancer]

Hi Ookla and Involuntary dancer.

What are DA.s please.

My husband had to wean himself off tramadol following 2 hip ops.side effects were awful.

Had his serum levels checked but just told normal.

So must find out if it is on record at the GP.s

Impossible to know which strain of kratom etc.to use and what one can obtain in UK.

Will try the John Hopkins website and other experts

Thanks for all replies.

Goodfairy

[involuntarydancer in reply to Goodfairy]

Dopamine Agonists - ropinerole (requip), mirapexin (pramipexole), neupro. They also come under other names - siffrol is one. They are often the first prescription drugs that GPs use for rls and they can be incredibly effective.

But they have a terrible sting in the tail. After a while l, as your husband has found, the effectiveness wears off and the drug starts to feed the condition - augmentation. Unfortunately, discontinuing the d/a is VERY difficult (I found it much worse than discontinuing opioids). Rls becomes incredibly severe and unrelenting so that no sleep at all is possible. This lasts usually at least two weeks, sometimes months.

There are also problems with unusual side effects - sudden sleep onset (falling asleep with NO warning) and impulse control disorder - usually gambling or internet shopping.

Most people use red vein Borneo Kratom for rls. Some people have reported that using Kratom helps with the dopamine agonist withdrawal.