Does Requip work for RLS?

[irazig]

My doctor prescribed Requip to control my RLS. Does anyone
have any experience with that medication?? Does it
help control the symptoms. I’m just reluctant to add
another medication without info from people like me.

[Rustsmith]

It is not unusual for a doctor to prescribe Requip for the treatment of RLS. However, did your doctor order blood work before prescribing it? Did (s)he explain the potential of augmentation, which is a side effect of meds such as Requip and is the topic of an entire forum here on the discussion board?

If not, then you might want to consider asking your doctor for a referral to a neurologist that specializes in movement disorders and understands the proper way to treat RLS.

[stjohnh]

Requip is very commonly used for RLS, and it usually does a good job of controlling the urge-to-move symptom of RLS. However, as time goes on, there can be lots of side effects, some serious. Best is iron, and needs blood tests as Steve mentioned.

RLS is caused by BID (Brain Iron Deficiency). Many people with RLS can have their symptoms markedly reduced or even eliminated with IV Iron treatments. This is the only treatment that gets at the basis for RLS (low brain iron). It has almost no side effects. The International Restless Legs Study Group has elevated IV Iron treatment to first line therapy. This means that IV Iron is one of the first treatments doctors should try, not one of the last (as has been done for many years). If you can get your doc to prescribe IV Iron treatment, that is the way you should go. Unfortunately this is fairly new information and most docs, even those that frequently treat RLS, are not aware of it. Note that the blood tests doctors usually do (ferritin test) to check for low iron only check for low BLOOD iron, there is no test available for checking for low BRAIN iron. Oral iron usually doesn't provide a high enough blood level increase to help, folks need IV Iron infusions. Here is a link to the recommendations:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... via%3Dihub

[Polar Bear]

I used ropinerole for 15 years to try and control my symptoms and it never completely was successful on its own. Adding codeine helped somewhat. I believed I was eventually augmented on the ropinerole at a much too high dose. I am now off ropinerole and using Lyrica and codeine with much greater success.

Be very aware of the possibility of augmentation and get your ferritin level checked.

[QyX]

While my response to pramipexol was already horrible, the way I reacted to ropinirole was even worse. I augmented on this drug within a day.

Ropinirole can work, maybe it does, maybe it does not. In case it should work, it is very important to keep the dose as low as possible and and only ever increase the dose when there is really no other way. And even then you most likely will be forced to stop the drug at some point down the road because the rate of augmentation is so damn high.

But when you tolerate ropinirole, it is okay to take it for the time being and as was already mentioned, iV iron would be by far the best treatment option.