Shaving down pills

[Boldgirl45]

Hi everyone, my mum who I’ve written about a lot here (80, restless legs along growth a whole host of other issues ) has perked up no end since getting her on electrolytes. I’m delighted as it feels like I’ve got my mum back.

Now she’s a little stronger, I feel like we could start to finally cut down the Ropinrole

I have two questions !

1) We know we need to do this slowly and take off tiny bits of the pill every few weeks . The issue we have is that it’s a film coated tablet so we’re not sure if we can do this without disrupting the protective film (I’m presuming that’s for slow absorption). I’ve attached a pic.

2) Mum seems to take the tablet on an adhoc basis which sounds unusual. When she feels RLS coming on, that’s when she takes them . I presume she’d just take her new, slightly reduced dose at that point ? Or should she try to delay taking the tablet slightly. ? Anyone have any experience here?

TIA for any help!

[SueJohnson]

If it is the extended release then it can't be shaved. If it is the regular one it can at least be cut in half with a pill cutter. You might ask your pharmacist this question. If not ask if you haven't opened the package if it can be exchanged for non film coated ones. If not ask your doctor to prescribe non coated ones.

[Boldgirl45 in reply to SueJohnson]

Thanks Sue!

[Joolsg]

Ask the pharmacist for 0.25 or 0.5 mg pills and explain that your mum is reducing them by 0.25mg every 2 weeks.They are usually very helpful.

Ropinirole should be taken at the same time every day.

Try to take the reduced dose at the same time every day and avoid the strong temptation to take it when the RLS flares up because then you end up taking above the daily dose.

[Boldgirl45 in reply to Joolsg]

Thanks so much!

[FlowersAreBeautiful]

Hi - when I told my neurologist that I'm routinely cutting off bits off the non-divisible film coated ropinirole pills with a carpet cutter (to keep the dose as low as possible, and stable, over years) he said that this wouldn't work. He said: once the pill is cut, it would go right through the system without effecting anything because the film needs to be intact. Personally, I think this is simply not true. I kept my intake stable this way over years, and finally got rid of ropinirole by further reducing the pills over a period of weeks while starting buprenorphine. I know that it worked because when my dose of ropinirole was too small I would have bad RLS. So it's clear the pills work even when the film coating is compromised.

[Boldgirl45 in reply to FlowersAreBeautiful]

Thank you very much, very interesting!