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What time to take Controlled Release DA (Requip or Miapexin)

#1

Hi,

I take a combination of Dopamine Agonist and Levadopa - I suspect many others out there do the same.

In my case I take 1.05mg of Mirapexin Prolonger Release in the morning and one tablet of Sinemet Plus (100/25mg) morning, noon and night. This combination seems to control my motor symptoms pretty well.

Non motor symptoms not quite so good - constipation, urinary urgency, insomnia, lack of concentration - all the usuals!!  Starting a bit more regular exercise, loose a bit of weight, drinking more water, CBT for insomnia, etc - hopefully that will all help.

But looking back over this forum, I see some people have preferred taking their prolonged release dopamine agonist (whether Mirapexin or Requip) at night.  If you have found taking it at a particular time of day helps, I would love to known when you've found is best and why.

Many thanks,

Cheers

AndrewJohn.

#2

Hi Andrewjohn, when i started taking mirapexin I was taking in the morning but soon experienced periods of intense sleepiness. I switched to the evenings about an hour before I went to bed and this seemed to help.  However after a while I realised that I was getting some breakthrough symptoms, such as pins and needles and aches in my arms, in the early evening which was annoying as this was when I might sit down and watch tv or do some knitting.  I have now switched back to mornings and it seems to be working as my body seems to have adjusted to the meds and I feel OK in the evening.  So it does seem to be trial and error and what your priorities are.

#3
I take requipXL, amongst other Parkinson meds, supposed to last 24 hours....but started wearing off before it was time for new dose. Requip helps to control restless legs, so taking full dose in the mornings meant that it wore off during the night and what little sleep I had was being interrupted. My solution was to take half a dose every 12 hours, so I always had some "live" requip in my system, the overlap of one dose with another meaning that in theory I had a full dose at any one time.