tapering off ropinirole

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badnights
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Location: Northwest Territories, Canada

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by badnights »

If you have an infection anywhere, that could raise your ferritin levels. Should be temporary though.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
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I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

Bronwen
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:13 pm
Location: South Africa

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by Bronwen »

I tried to come off pramipexole by 25%, complete disaster, suicide territory.
I now have a methadone scrip, and will try to reduce the DA by no more than 10% per month, with methadone as needed.
I have read enough about DAWS to be truly afraid. Apparently, as many as 19% of sufferers will get DAWS, some of them for protracted periods - or for life.
Do not mess with this stuff! No wonder so many legal cases are in the pipeline.

stjohnh
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:13 pm
Location: Palo Alto, California

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by stjohnh »

I'm glad you managed to get the methadone prescription. It should make coming off the pramipexole quite a bit easier, although not necessarily easy. What is your current dose of pramipexole?
Blessings,
Holland

stjohnh
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:13 pm
Location: Palo Alto, California

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by stjohnh »

Hmmm, I missed the "methadone as needed" part of your post. Methadone has a very long Half-Life and so doesn't really lend itself to as-needed use. How are you thinking of using it as-needed?
Blessings,
Holland

ViewsAskew
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Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by ViewsAskew »

DAWS is very unlikely with low doses. How much are you taking, Bronwen? Once you get to 1 mg or pramipexole, I do not believe there are issues with stopping it immediately - but check with a pharmacist to be sure. I'd check with Dr. B - email him as somno@verizon.net. He usually says to stop cold turkey if taking 1 mg or less. You can taper prior if taking more, but I think he says to reduce every 3 to 4 days.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

tvssnt468
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:56 pm

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by tvssnt468 »

Rustsmith wrote:
Sun Jan 07, 2018 12:30 am
The experience of most of us has been that CBD is not strong enough to handle even day to day RLS movement problems, much less the issues during DA withdrawal. And the experience of most has been that Lyrica is also not strong enough to cover the symptoms during withdrawal.

So, the general experience has been that you only have 2 choices, use of an opioid (at least for the first week) or go through that week with no sleep.

When I was faced with recovering from augmentation from pramipexole and rotigatine, the deciding factor for me was the answer to the question of what I was going to do once I "recovered". The answer that my doctor and I agreed upon was that I was going to need to go on an opioid because I was already taking gabapentin for migraine prevention. So, I knew that gabapentin (or Lyrica) wasn't going to be strong enough to manage my RLS and that left an opioid. I have been on a low dose of methadone now for almost 2 years and it has been far better than the 2+ years that I was on one of the DAs.
May I ask what dose of Methadone you're taking. I'm weaning off ropinirole now (third week cutting down) and using 2.5 mg. Methadone.

Rustsmith
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Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by Rustsmith »

I take 5mg of methadone. My doctor initially wanted me to titrate up to the "normal" dose of 10mg, but after a couple of days, that made me feel sort of drugged, so I went back to 5 and have been there ever since.
Steve

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

tvssnt468
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:56 pm

Re: tapering off ropinirole

Post by tvssnt468 »

Thank you

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