My GP has changed my tablets of pramipexole 0.88mg to 0.18mg stating I can take two of the latter, is this safe? which is the lower dose.

[blokie]

[peterk]

I don't currently take this medication but I would check the patient information leaflet and ask your doctor if you have any worries about it.

[Hidden]

Read the leaflet it tells you what the doses are... But, 018mg is the same as 2 of the 0.088mg,

so, taking 2 of the 0.18mg is equal to 4 of the 0.088mg. You are allowed to take up to 6 tabs of the 0.088mg which is .54 the highest dose for RLS... You just need to take one of the 0.18mg first and see if that dose works before using two of them...

[Hidden]

Sorry missed a decimal point out, should read, 0.18mg

[StarlightWO2]

I started on 0.088mg back in 2008 and it was quite sufficient then. By 2010 this dose was not working and my GP increased it to 0.18mg. Just recently this higher dosage was also not doing the job so he has now increased it to 0.35mg. I have been taking this dosage for about a month now with perfect sleep and no side effects. I guess that the body builds up a tolerance to this medication and it is necessary to increase the dosage from time to time.

[Hidden]

Yes, people do become tolerant to this med and the other dopamine agonists. The RLS becomes worse and a higher dose is needed, its called augmentation. Once we hit the highest dose there is no where to go but change meds...

[cefndaniel in reply to Hidden]

This Augmentation that is talked about. If you reach this on one of the dopamine agonists do you solve the problem by changing to another med that is also a dopamine agonist. Say ropiorole to pramipexole. I take ropinorole and have done since before it was licenced (I was one who trialed it for Glaxo) have been fine up to about a year ago and now it 'sort' of works. I get confused and my RLS is so bad that sitting at the computer without kicking the table legs is difficult!!!!

Hense am not able to do much research

[blokie]

Thank you all for your answers, I will try the new medication as GP's instructions and see what happens.

[Pete-1]

2 X 0.18 = 0.36 which is lower than 0.88 and 2 X 0.36 = 0.72 so still less than 0.88.

[gingerman12 in reply to Pete-1]

Yes, its so confusing with mcg (micrograms?) and mg (milligrams?). My Mirapexin packet states 88mcg and then in brackets 0.125mg. ( I can't understand how they can be the same!). And also it states Mirapexin 0.088mg. We have to compare like weights, and the actual ingredients, and just read very carefully the amounts we are taking.

[StarlightWO2]

We are talking about tiny fractions of a gram. "Milli" means one thousandth whereas "Micro" means one millionth. You just move the decimal point 3 places. Therefore 0.088 milligrams is 88 micrograms.

With regard to Pete's post above, I think he made a mistake as nobody has mentioned a dose of 0.88. That would be a very high dose indeed. I think he meant 0.08, in which case 0.36 is more than 4 times as strong.

[Pete-1 in reply to StarlightWO2]

Oh probably - its just that the original question specified 0.88.

[Pete-1 in reply to Pete-1]

Before taking the prolonged release version of Pramipexole I used to take 1.06 mg 3 or was it 4 times per day. Each dose was made up from 1x 0.7mg +2 x 0.18mg. I was told this was the maximum dose but then I took this for Parkinson's disease rather than RLS

[sajas]

I'm taking pramipexole tablets for my RLS and am now on a 0.35mg tablet [equivalent to 4 x 0.088mg tablets] which I take at about 9.30pm. It seems to work quite well. I can go to bed and get to sleep OK. I tend to wake up at about 4am, have a move around and then back to sleep till about 7am. I am reluctant to go to a higher dose and can cope with not sleeping right through. I'm due for a review with my doctor in January and some blood tests to check kidney function etc.