This may help you when requesting an opioid verses the doctor wishing to prescribe DA
hopkinsmedicine.org/neurolo...
I am typing this information direct from John hopkins treatment article.
An estimated 85% to 90 % of patients with RLS will respond very well to opiates.An analysis of drug responses in RLS over a 2 to 10 year period showed that 85 percent of RLS patients who started on methadone were still on it compared to less than 20 percent of those who started on a Dopamine drug. The median starting dose for methadone in the study was 10 mg per day with a range between 2.5 and 20 mg per day.
Thus for over 300 years opiates remained the ONLY truly effective treatment for this disease.
This category of medications includes codiene, hydrocdone ,morphine , hydromorphone , methadone , Buprenorphine and pentazocine.