Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

greetings,

i am now half way thru my taper, down to 2mg at bedtime. 2 nights of 2mg, and have awaken at 3:30am both times. was able to go back to sleep, but the dreaming was so pronounced that it was almost as though i wasn't asleep. BTW I did start my requip beginners pack at the same time. I take the requip one hour before going to bed.

related... my work schedule was "easy".. i wasn't on my feet the entire day, and was off one day. fell asleep about 3pm sunday while watching TV. left leg was "warm" and ached while I was kicking back

thanks

Ed

wide awake at 1am... decided to take an extra dose (0.5mg) to help. need to discuss this with MD doing tapering. ringing in ears is worse, but suprisingly no headache. i wonder if the tapering at a detox facility (stop clonazepam, use phenobarbital 30mg four times daily then decrease over 10 days) isn't a better idea.

Ed

e, I had, and I think others have had, very vivid dreams with Requip. Mine were extremely disturbing and anxiety provoking. Lead to the demise of Requip for me. I think some others have reported the same. So, maybe it's not the Klonopin or not. Again, the standard caveat for Requip... the starter pack dose increase intervals should be used with caution. Only take as much as you need. Hope your doc will agree. Don't remember where you started tapering from but many, myself included, have had to taper down in very, very small increments i.e. 1/4 of .5 mg etc. Scoring them is difficult but it can be done. My taper from 2 mg lasted better than 6 months to quit and then several months before the lingering side effects (edginess, a bit of anxiety) subsided. So, it can be a long haul. Not sure of your exact situation but if you have a good doc but hopefully between the two of you a somewhat better plan can be worked out. I'm not sure that I remember a post from anyone have to detox from Klonopin at a facility but... that is neither here not there. You need to do what is best for you. Best of luck, my friend.

M.

Ed, I had luck using the Ashton method (I think that's what it was). It's named after a doc in the UK who created a method where you switch to a much shorter half-life benzo instead of the clonazepam and then you reduce that very slowly. There is a whole forum (with thousands of people on it, I think) where they follow it and advocate it. There are horror stories from many people on that forum who tried other methods, tried cold turkey, etc.

I wonder if there is any research regarding this????

Sojourner wrote:e, I had, and I think others have had, very vivid dreams with Requip. Mine were extremely disturbing and anxiety provoking. Lead to the demise of Requip for me. I think some others have reported the same. So, maybe it's not the Klonopin or not. Again, the standard caveat for Requip... the starter pack dose increase intervals should be used with caution. Only take as much as you need. Hope your doc will agree. Don't remember where you started tapering from but many, myself included, have had to taper down in very, very small increments i.e. 1/4 of .5 mg etc. Scoring them is difficult but it can be done. My taper from 2 mg lasted better than 6 months to quit and then several months before the lingering side effects (edginess, a bit of anxiety) subsided. So, it can be a long haul. Not sure of your exact situation but if you have a good doc but hopefully between the two of you a somewhat better plan can be worked out. I'm not sure that I remember a post from anyone have to detox from Klonopin at a facility but... that is neither here not there. You need to do what is best for you. Best of luck, my friend.

M.

I had CRAZY dreams when I took requip. I would wake up in the morning and be like what the hell was that......

I hated taking any of those pills. My doc has me on codine now.

Here in the Uk we can get requip/ropinerole under the name of Adartel and my doc gives me these. my daily dose is 2mg (taken over 24 hours for my 24/7 rls) and doc prescribes me pills of .5mg. These are oblong and are scored and are easily halved. So quite easily, the dose can be less in the morning and increase during the day and towards evening as necessary. But I never exceed my daily 2mg, indeed try to only use 1.5mg daily. Tho I do use Ambien/Zolpidem as a sleep aid.

Ed, any sleep last night?

If Requip is working in other ways, you may want to step it down and see what happens. It seems that some people get the sleepiness and others the sleeplessness. In another thread, Bonnie was saying it just makes her pass out. Dopamine is an interesting chemical and imagine it depends somewhat on the rest of our brain chemistry as to how it affects us.

Have you written to Dr Buchfurer or searched his site to see if he's given advice to anyone else about sleeplessness and REquip? It's rlshelp.org. Once there, go to the patient letters pages - there are thousands of letters and his answers, going back to the 90's.

I have heard some people use a sleep aid, but that some people still have fractured sleep. You may find that switching to Mirapex works better (or not). Or that you need a combo of a small amount of Requip along with something like Neurontin, which often knocks people out.

i think using 1mg "steps" is too much, so i am trying half mg decreases. instead of 2mg, i am trying 2.5mg. still only 5 hours of sleep, but I shouldn't brag I realize others would love to get that many hours

Ed

p.s. took my first dose of 1mg requip last night.. no weird dreams, but then again had to go to work after 6 hours in bed.. no chance i guess

Yeah, 1 mg is pretty big. I had to do much, much smaller.

Hang in there. (not that you have too many other choices...)

back at 3mg.. two fairly good nights.. (about 5 hours). ringing in the ears is intermittant with no headache. third night of 1mg requip

Ed

Ed,

I'm probably just confused, but are you talking about 3 mg. Clonazepam or Requip and are you trying to taper off Clonazepam? Thanks, Maddie

maddie

i'm tapering off clonazepam.. because my MD wants me to, and the state doesn't like to see pharmacists using addictive medications. as of march I was using 8mg at bedtime. excessive salivation wasn't a very "manly" side effect

i'm on a requip starter pack, and i'm three days into 1mg dose.

hope that clears is up

Ed

8 mg of Klonopin ???

m.

Ed, is the Requip working? I only ask because I know it has you titrate up per the package instructions, but many people get relief long before you get to what it says to use.

Along with low ferritin levels, Dr Picchietti and Dr Buchfurer both have cited that using Requip and Mirapex at levels not needed (instead of going simply by the degree of RLS) as a major cause of augmentation.

Please disregard if you are aware of this or the Requip hasn't worked yet, etc.

Sojourner wrote:8 mg of Klonopin ???

m.

yes. the past few months have been NO fun!!

Ed