Ropinirole

[SilverEvie]

Morning i am about to start my journey coming off Ropinirole after 18 years. thank you to many of you for your advice and what to expect! Has anyone else after being on this started to put weight on after so many years. I did initially. I'm embarassed to say but i also seem to have developed i suppose what is "secret eating" and "binge" eating. Hence putting on more weight. Is or could this be down to Ropinirole after all these years or is it just me. thanks to everyone

[Joolsg]

Yes. Binge eating is a known side effect of Ropinirole. Impulse Control Disorder affects a high percentage of people and can cause gambling, over spending, binge eating and hypersexuality.In the UK there have been successful legal cases against doctors and neurologists for failure to warn patients of this complication.

Please tell your GP of this AND report it via the Gov yellow card scheme as it will help warn others of how dangerous these drugs really are.

yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

When you tell your GP, please also mention that as you have ICD, you are more likely to get DAWS and therefore he/she will need to monitor and help you through Ropinirole withdrawal.

Slowly with the help of opioids to deal with withdrawal symptoms.

Show GP these articles on ICD and DAWS - they have never been taught anything about RLS or Ropinirole or the complications so we have to supply them with information!

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

pharmaceutical-journal.com/...

bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l434

[SilverEvie in reply to Joolsg]

Thank you Joolsg

[LotteM]

Listen to Joolsg, Evie. Sound advice. And keep foremost in mind: go slow

[SilverEvie in reply to LotteM]

Thank you

[TeddiJ]

Hi. I went off the DA's last August (after many, many years) and eventually came to believe that I was losing weight due to being off them. The weight just fell off for a while-even when I was eating fattening foods like pizza and thai and chocolate, was not trying to lose weight, and was not exercising as much as I normally do because it was winter/I was lazy being on an opioid.

It was/is bizarre to have my old body back after so many years of blaming my hormones! I had a healthy appetite all those years, but I don't think it was that abnormal/extra. I exercised a lot, tried various diets (quite often!), and never ate meat of any kind (which may or may not have led to my original RLS issue).

So, don't blame yourself totally for the # on your scale, or even your extra food intake. I gained weight SO easily and found it super difficult to lose.

I do hope this makes you feel much better; that nasty ROP!

Best of luck to you on tapering down (I did it with methadone over about one month's time though I am now not an opioid fan) and I hope you experience this weight drop, too! If nothing else, I'm sure you will lose your compulsion to eat as much.

[Merny5]

Hello Silver Evie. As suggested from the above experts, get help from your doctor, medication, and GO SLOW. It took me 22 months to come off of Neupro because of the DAWS. I too had an ICD which was binge eating. I had no idea why I was eating, even as I was stuffing food in my mouth I was asking myself why am I doing this. The urge was so strong, especially at night when my RLS symptoms were so intense. I underwent expensive hypnotherapy. So please don’t feel embarrassed. It’s another horrible side effect of the medication. On a positive note, the compulsive eating goes away when the DAs are out of your system. Good luck SIlverevie. You can do this!! Keep us posted with your progress.

[1kferg]

GO SLOW when coming off Ropinerole. Unfortunately, my RLS came back but hey it's worth the try. Right!

[Browne1212]

I have just come of after 14 years be very careful take your time coming of you will get side effects I have now been of for 5weeks can't keep awake constantly falling asleep becarful if you drive I have also got massive loss of energy and I ride a bike a lot if I do a ride it will take days to recover from the ride