Mirapex/Requip withdrawal?

whyyesiamspecial · Post by **whyyesiamspecial** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:42 am

Can someone give me a heads up on what I'm about to go through? Your experience? Any info will be helpful. I'm quitting cold turkey. I can't keep taking these pills for the rest of my life. Tonight will be night 3 without meds. I have sleeping pills to get me through my nights.
Yesterday I had increased energy. Little jittery. Small amount of confusion. My day is just starting at 4:00AM. Work at 6:30. I'm feeling rather lethargic but that could be my sleeping pills wearing off.

Post by **Chipmunk** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 5:49 pm

what dose were you taking? I would imagine if you are on day 3 already with no problems then you will be fine.

Post by **ViewsAskew** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:22 pm

If I remember correctly (IIRC), the doctors say they are no issues, but it would be wise to verify that as I'm not a doctor.

In terms of my personal experience...

Stopping it cold turkey when I didn't have augmentation was no problem. I stopped it and that was that.

Stopping it when I had augmentation was a different story. I had no side effects from stopping it, but the RLS/WED was so horrible I couldn't do it. I tried two times on my own and by day 7 or 8 of no sleep, I caved.

Post by **Polar Bear** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:27 pm

Good Luck with your cessation.

Are you planning on coping with RLS/WED symptoms without any medication.

Post by **badnights** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:13 am

Are you sleeping well without it? Does the RLS/WED wake you up, or do you manage to stay asleep, & to fall asleep easily? My problem if I stop a drug is having the RLS/WED symptoms taken care of - I need another drug to replace the one I'm stopping otherwise there is no sleep.

Post by **Polar Bear** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:04 am

I empathise with badnights, I could not stop an RLS/WED medication without having the help of another medication in its place. Tried once to reduce the Requip and had 3 consecutive nights of absolutely no sleep at all. In desperation I caved in.

doety · Post by **doety** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:08 am

Sounds like you're doing really well. I'm assuming you didn't take them for a really long time. Unfortunately I did -- my doctors said not to worry about it, or "we'll take care of that later." I bet I've been on it about 12 years. I started taking Methadone with it. Then, quite a while later, I realized that I wasn't sleep, was having a horrible time... nothing was working. I wanted to get off both and decided to start with the clonazepam. Wow....in getting off it, I realized how strong it really was.

One thing we all have to remember is that we are ALL different in how medications affect us, how we can get off them, etc. I recently went to see Dr. B in California and he reminded me about that.

Someone heard me complaining about what I was taking, and asked me why I didn't just keep taking it. That's when I heard myself say: why would I do that?? It isn't working. Right now, I'm not sure which one isn't working, maybe both. I can't believe how hard it is for me to get off clonazepam. I had already gone down to 1/2 of the .5 pill. After seeing the doc, I stopped it cold turkey and havent slept in about a week. He advised me to put a little of the clonazepam back, and get off it more slowly.

So: I'll take the next couple of weeks to do that. Sounds like you're doing well and that you can just move on. Good luck to you.

veldon7 · Post by **veldon7** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:33 am

I have been on Mirapex for about 7 to 10 years, I am up to 1 mg in the afternoon to night. I want to stop it because of the augmentation, and having to increase the dose, but the neuro won't give me any thing else but Requip. Lately I am going crazy because my legs are starting earlier and not responding as well to the Mirapex, and taking the extra dose makes me so tired. Neuro did give me some Klonopin, but it didn't help my legs. I am thinking about going back on Requip, only because it doesn't make me as tired, although it wears off faster than Mirapex, thats all I can do until I can find a Dr. who will give me something else, thanks for listening. :cry:

veldon7 · Post by **veldon7** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:35 am

I tried Gabapentine one time, I don't think it worked, has any one had any luck with it? thanks

Post by **Polar Bear** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:50 pm

Desperate D: If you use the link in my signature it will take you to the Mayo Clinic Algorithm which you could print off and take with you to your Dr/neuro
How amenable is your neuro. Do you think he would take note of the Algorithm which is a wonderful guide to medication and shows there is more to treatment that requip and mirapex.

Post by **badnights** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 4:02 am

Gabapentin had some effect on my RLS, and combined with codeine it was almost effective enough for a while til my RLS got worse, but unfortunately it also made me suicidally depressed from time to time, which was really scary.

Your neuro might be willing to look at other meds once he reads the paper in Polar Bear's link. The next group of meds to try, according to that paper, is the anti-convulsants, of which you've only tried gabapentin. There is an improved form of gabapentin (gabapentin encarbil marketed as Horizant) which you can tell your neuro was just recently FDA-approved for RLS. Also pregbalin/Lyricia is used for RLS a lot.

Hopefully once he reads the paper he will be willing to try you on these drugs, and if they don't work, on opioids or a combination.

Laurachrissy · Post by **Laurachrissy** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 5:57 pm

whyyesiamspecial wrote:Can someone give me a heads up on what I'm about to go through? Your experience? Any info will be helpful. I'm quitting cold turkey. I can't keep taking these pills for the rest of my life. Tonight will be night 3 without meds. I have sleeping pills to get me through my nights.
Yesterday I had increased energy. Little jittery. Small amount of confusion. My day is just starting at 4:00AM. Work at 6:30. I'm feeling rather lethargic but that could be my sleeping pills wearing off.

Are you able to sleep now? How do your legs feel?

Post by **Chipmunk** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:25 pm

badnights wrote:Gabapentin had some effect on my RLS, and combined with codeine it was almost effective enough for a while til my RLS got worse, but unfortunately it also made me suicidally depressed from time to time, which was really scary.

I am on Lamictal (lamotrigine) which is also an anti-convulsive, but also has anti-depressive properties so it won't make you depressed. The catch is that you have to titrate up very slowly so you don't get a bad reaction.

I started at 12.5 mg for two weeks, then 25 mg for two weeks, then 50 mg and I stopped increasing the dose as that was helping the WED but was starting to cause water retention (initial plan was to get to 100 mg).

doety · Post by **doety** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:41 pm

I got this thread because I commented one time (probably late at night). Just wanted to say I was not responding to the subject. I got super-hooked on clonazepam, not the drugs you were talking about. I'm sure I made no sense. Hope things are okay now.

(I took Mirapex for two years, took Methadone to get off the Mirapex, and now I'm looking at trying to get off of Methadone. Arg)

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

Mirapex/Requip withdrawal?

Mirapex/Requip withdrawal?

Re: Mirapex/Requip withdrawal?

huh?