A question! I was on 2mg ropinirol at bedtime for the last 5 years or so. After reading all the negative things about it, I decided to wean off, .25mg at a time. I've been doing this slowly and I'm down to 1mg now but a strange thing happened last night. Early evening and my legs felt fine. No twitchy feelings indicating the onset of RLS. Towards bedtime, I took my 1mg pill and got ready for bed. The minute I turned out the light, the RLS slammed into my kegs full force. My left leg was jumping horribly. I tried everything. Magnesium, liquid iron tonic, GABA, hot compresses, and essential oils. I even tried walking it out. Nothing helped. Finally my left calmed down and my right leg started up. I was up until 3am. I haven't had an attack like that in a long time.
It seems like the ropinirol triggered it!!!
Is that possible? Should I try not taking it at all tonight and see what happens?
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Notlikinthis
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Hi, you've done well to reduce from 2mg to 1mg. Reducing in steps of. 0.25 also seems reasonable.
When you say slowly, I wonder how slow that is. Hopefully no less than two weeks between reductions.
What you describe sounds very much like withdrawal effects. It can be that as you reduce the dose, withdrawal effects can get worse at each reduction. So as the dose gets lower you may have to slow down the reduction.
Not taking at all is a definite NO NO! Withdrawal effects could be horrendous. The ropinirole is not triggering, it's the opposite, it's the reduced dose that's triggering it.
You must not stop suddenly, keep taking it and reducing it.
Taking an opioid can help wiith withdrawal effects.
Have you thought what you're going to replace the ropinirole with?
I would wait until symptoms settle more and once settled, then wait 2 weeks before dropping the next dose.
I had a very bad withdrawal and found that tramadol helped a little but smoking illegal cannabis was the most effective. It allowed me 30 mins sleep after days without any respite.
Everyone has a different experience- there are a few people who have managed to get off DAs with hardly any withdrawal symptoms. Others have a much more difficult time and there are some who can never manage to drop the last dose.
All I can say is that the horrendous withdrawal symptoms do eventually stop and your RLS then settles.
I've been going down .25mg about every 2 weeks. I might make it 3 weeks and see if that helps. I think I may try the cannabis, but I have to go over to Washington to get some. Its illegal in Idaho. I want to avoid the pharmaceuticals, especially opioids.
Dopamine agonists are far more 'addictive' & dangerous than opioids in my honest opinion. Opioids have a very bad press because of the negligent overprescription for pain relief.
Hopefully Dr. Winkelman's opioid study will help doctors realise that low dose Opioids can be safe & effective for RLS if prescribed & monitored properly. They were the first drugs used for RLS in 1660s England by Dr. Willis.
As others have noted it would seem that you are reacting to the decrease in ropinerol (withdrawal). A few months ago I abruptly switched from 2-3 mg of ropinerol taken before bed to 900-1200 mg of gabapentin. I had no apparent withdrawal symptoms. The doc never mentioned that perhaps I should taper off of the ropinerol. My hypothesis is that the gabapentin allowed me to go cold turkey.
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