![Evil or Very Mad :evil:](./images/smilies/icon_evil.gif)
Rant over. I'm glad your symptoms are much better, and congratulations on the whole procedure, and sticking to your guns. I hope the Lyrica will indeed be enough on its own! And if it's not, and she refuses to get a backbone, there's always kratom!
badnights wrote:It makes me angry that you have to go through this. It seems to me that she should have granted you at least a few months of peace, but preferably, she should just keep prescribing the medication that is allowing you a semi-normal life. Would she be able to do her job if she woke up for an hour every night? She should be prescribing what works and worry about fighting whoever there is to fight if they ever call her out for it, and not until then.
Rant over.
badnights wrote: I assume you lower the ropinirole dose for a period of time until the symptoms return to your pre-medication baseline? Have you found that the augmentation lasts a shorter time if you catch it sooner?
badnights wrote:ladyslider, you sound like you're on the right track with your current meds and the Emory visit.![]()
badnights wrote:@crackedvessel
I think it's important to have your story here, so that people know that augmentation can be treated that way (by lowering the dose of the DA and toughing it out, then raising it again), at least for some people. Another thing you might successfully try is switching DAs when you first note the signs of augmentation. A 2016 paper reported on three cases in which patients cycled among rotigotine, ropinirole ER and pramipexole ER ( note that these are all long-acting dopamine agonists).
I will note that, in this mode of treatment, the patient is doomed to augment (i.e. suffer) before a switch is made, however, this might be the best alternative for some people. I am curious about how long the cycling can go on before it no longer works but I suspect that a person might be able to keep the DAs effective for longer by rotating through them, rather than staying on one. I also worry about the possible long-term effects of dopamine agonist use in WED (a number of us feel our symptoms were permanently worsened by augmentation). But for people for whom opioids are not a viable alternative, it has to be encouraging to hear your story. We don't often hear of your mode of augmentation treatment here, and it's good to have it brought up.
Opioid treatment also is appropriate for some people but not for all. Doctors and patients both have to be on the alert for warning signs of addiction. I have had no problem whatsoever with it; maybe it helps that I have never felt a high or euphoria or a pleasant state of any kind from taking them. If I had, I would have to watch myself even more carefully, to be sure I was taking medication only for my WED symptoms, and only in the prescribed daily amount.