Rls medication

[Mustanggirlgirl]

Husband went to neurologist today they upped his gabapentin to 600mg from the 200mg and lowered the 1mg ropinirole to half mg to wean off. He is on buspirone for anxiety and now is wondering if he is taking second dose too late making rls worse. Does anyone have any knowledge on if buspirone has any effect one way or the other with rls?

[ziggypiggy]

Buspirone made my RLS worse. Especially in my arms. But that's just my experience. I believe I stopped and started at least twice to be sure, because with RLS you can never know how other factors and variables may be influencing ones symptoms at the same time.

But as two of your medicines are already being adjusted at the same time I would hesitate to add a third change. You'll be in a guessing game about what's helping or hurting the treatment.

I will suggest to stay in top of things by being adamant that follow ups occur at least monthly by phone or in person to make adjustments until things get better.

Good luck

[Hidden]

I doubt if buspirone will affect RLS one way or the other.

Gabapentin is best taken 2 hours before bedtime. The minimum effective dose is typically 900mg. It shouldn't make RLS worse.

It appears that the problem is cutting the ropinirole so drastically. This will cause withdrawal effects.

It's better if ropinirole is reduced in steps of no more than 0.25mg and no more often than once every 2 weeks.

If cutting by 0.25 causes too severe worsening of symptoms (withdrawal effects) then try 0.125mg cuts.

[Mustanggirlgirl in reply to Hidden]

Last night he took the 300 mg gabapentin and the .50mg ropinirole and got woken up by the worst rls in all limbs he has experienced so far. All his joints are hurting cause of it. Do you think it's possible he already would have withdrawal symptoms first night of change? He is definitely going to have to get the dr to fix the dosage

[Hidden]

Withdrawal symptoms from ropinirole can start within 24 hours of reducing the dose and can last at least ten days.

I suggest he put the dose of ropinirole back.up to 0.75mg for a couple of weeks before trying to reduce again.

I thought he was taking 600mg gabapentin? If he takes all 600mg at night it should help.

However, even at that dose gabapentin can't help much with withdrawal effects. In addition, if he's only been taking the gabapentin less than 3 weeks it won't really have started working yet.

I'm afraid that withdrawal effects can be very severe and Drs seem unaware of this. The slower the reduction, the less severe they will be.

What would help during withdrawal is codeine, if his Dr will prescribe some.

In addition, as iron deficiency is the main cause of RLS, I hope your husband has had blood tests for iron deficiency. Using drugs to control RLS can be more effective, if what's causing it in the first place is corrected.

Furthermore, as well as thinking about what can relieve RLS it can be significant to consider what moght be making it worse - triggers or exacerbating factors. Avoiding these can improve symptoms.

The most common rxacerbating factors are other medications. if any, and what he eats and drinks.

[Mustanggirlgirl in reply to Hidden]

He only took one of the 300mg gabapentin that night, I think he thought jumping from 200mg to 600mg he would have issues but he took both last night . Thank you so much for all your great advice.