Spacing out Mirapex/pramipexole or Lyrica/pregabalin throughout the day

[charlie1234567890]

My friend and I were discussing our RLS medications. She mentioned that mirapex was not working for her until she started taking it throughout the day. One with breakfast, one with lunch, one with dinner and one at night. Within a couple of days her RLS was gone. Wondering if this has worked for others. And also wondering if I should try this with Lyrica/pregabalin throughout the day since I wake up so groggy in the morning on the Lyrica.

[Madlegs1]

What is her total daily dose?

I imagine she is on the highway to augmentation in very short time.

Get her to research it.

[Skylark1968 in reply to Madlegs1]

Yes indeed..I have had just that happen to me... Augmentation is terrible .

[SueJohnson]

If you try this with lyrica you will just end up with with brain fog and grogginess all day long.

[EYESWIDEOPEN17]

hey Charlie! I’m not familiar with mirapex so me giving you my experience with lyrica null. I cannot take lyrica because it makes me swell and it makes me unable to really hold a conversation because it stammers my speech really bad and I will pop off with something so random. I won’t even be talking and I will ask a weird question or makes weird responses. It just messed with my head too much. My doctor put me on Horizant ER. I take 1200mg/day and I don’t have near the bad side effects. I still stammer my speech at times. I can’t find the word to speak sometimes. It’s very frustrating but being frustrated is my least concern. Horizant is like lyrica; it is gabapentin it’s just released differently I guess. I have swelling in my legs and hands but not anything like regular gabapentin or lyrica. Unfortunately, Horizant isn’t covered by my insurance though so I have to get it at a specialty pharmacy where I pay $120/mo. I know it’s pricey but at least it’s not $450 which is how much it costs without the specialty pharm. It’s so stupid because if I wasn’t on Medicare I could get it for like $30/mo. 🤷‍♀️ Gotta have it! Gotta pay it!!

Hope that helps or at least give you another medicine to look up and see if it might work for you. I don’t wake up groggy throughout the day.

Trayce

[SueJohnson in reply to EYESWIDEOPEN17]

I assume when you say $30/month you are talking about the Horizant site. I'm very interested in this because that was my understanding some time ago that if you were on Medicare they didn't cover it. However others more recently have said they do cover it. I don't need it, but would like to know so I can advise others that ask. You might want to reach out again to see it they will cover it. My notes say with the card one pays as little as $55/month if you have no insurance for 30 tablets, as little as $0/month up to 60 tablets if you do have insurance. Terms and conditions: (1/19/2023): say Patient not eligible if prescriptions are paid in part or full by any state or federally funded programs, including but not limited to Medicare. However since none of the part D programs pay anything then the prescriptions are not paid in part or full.

Please let me know what you find out.

[EYESWIDEOPEN17 in reply to SueJohnson]

they do not pay anything. I pay $120 per month I have to get 60 because I take 2/600mg x2. Medicare or your part b which mine is UHC does NOT cover anything.

[SueJohnson in reply to EYESWIDEOPEN17]

That's what I thought. Thank you for checking.

[EYESWIDEOPEN17 in reply to SueJohnson]

That is correct BUT if you are any government insurance ie Medicare, my part B is with United Healthcare it will not be covered. It’s completely backwards to me because if a patient is on Medicare one would think they would qualify for the lower prices. Nope! I pay $120/mo for 60 days and 600mg/ea. I’m also on SSID and we all know that’s not near enough with BIDENOMICS! My few dollars as yours no doubt just doesn’t go far with inflation, insurance, gas prices and food costs.

[Nycsyd]

Greetings,

I took something similar to Mirapex and it nearly destroyed my life. It worked great for a while then augmentation set in and my restless leg was worse than ever. It can also cause compulsive/addictive behaviors such as gambling shopping etc. Once augmentation set in I started taking Lyrica and I was a mess I was groggy all day had sleep attacks during the day and did not sleep as well at night. I started taking Modafinil to offset the effects. last year I started taking 20 mg of Buprenorphine on a Norspan transdermal patch and it has made a huge difference in m life

[EYESWIDEOPEN17 in reply to Nycsyd]

When I was on gabby and lyrica I had such bad insomnia. My doc put me on ambien 12.5mg. I would wake up in the morning exhausted at times. I thought I was sleeping but I’m reality I was up doing stuff all night. Talking to people that wasn’t there. I had even increased the ambien to 1.5 tabs at night. Some nights I knocked out and stayed out but I would hit a wall around 11am and could keep my eyes open. I took it for on and off for probably a year. I DONT take it anymore.

[Nycsyd in reply to EYESWIDEOPEN17]

I am still on Buprenorphine. It is not a perfect solution, but a year later and it is still a life changer for me. I live in Australia so not sure how the whole health insurance works.

[108512bea]

I can only speak from my experience with mirapex, that if you don’t have to be on it, I would recommend staying away from it. I was on it for roughly 14 years with a gradual increase in dosage over that time. If you want to experience severe withdrawal symptoms from a dopamine agonist, then by all means, go on mirapex. That’s what happened to me when my doctor took me off the Mirapex I am currently taking in replace of Mirapex a patch called neupro, which is also a dopamine agonist, but the withdrawal off of that is somewhat different than mirapex. Currently I am taking the new pro patch a 3 mg Lyrica 100 mg and clonazepam just to keep my restless leg at bed. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. I hope someday someone comes up with something that is more effective for the restless leg, and does it cause as severe withdrawal, if you go off it, hope this helps