Restless Leg Syndrome, or RLS is complete torture to those who suffer from it. It is a tingly, tightening and creepy crawly sensation in your feet, legs and sometimes arms. My husband has been suffering from it for a while now. His doctor put him on Requip and at first it was helping him. That is until his body got used to it and now it doesn’t seem to help like it used to. For him it can start as early as 5:30 in the afternoon and last until he literally passes out from exhaustion.
I didn’t realize just how bad it really was until I started suffering from it myself. I didn’t start suffering from it until I was put on Seroquel for Bi-Polar disorder. My doctor says it is a side effect of the Seroquel. I could not believe how bad it was until I first started suffering and I do not wish it on my worst enemy. It can get so bad that by the time you are ready for bed at night you can not fall asleep no matter how tired you are. You can start to fall asleep and it will jerk you right awake.
For a while there Requip was the only medication for Restless Leg Syndrome and until I was able to get in to see my doctor about it I was taking my husband’s Requip. I know the doctors say you should never take anyone else’s medication but I had it so bad that I didn’t care, I needed relief. It was helping me but it did take a while to kick in so I had to suffer until about a half hour to an hour before it finally kicked in.
So I finally went to my doctor and told him about it and I asked for Requip but he instead put me on Mirapex, which is a new medication for Restless Leg Syndrome and it also treats Parkinson’s disease.
The first night I was on it was more torture than I could have ever imagined. Instead of it helping the Restless Leg Syndrome it made it worse. Not only did it make it worse but it also made my depression worse. I asked my doctor the day he put me on Mirapex why I couldn’t just take Requip and he said it would counter act with my other medications such as, the Seroquel and Zoloft. Well he was so wrong because the Mirapex counter acted and made me so depressed for the two days I was on it I was actually having suicidal thoughts. Of course I wasn’t actually 100 % sure that it was the Mirapex because he had also upped my dose of Propranolol, which is a migraine medication. So I decided to go one night without the Mirapex and see what would happen.
The next day without the Mirapex I was back to my old self again. I was no longer having suicidal thoughts or feeling so depressed that I didn’t know what to do with myself. That first night without the Mirapex also made me sleep better with no Restless Leg Syndrome whatsoever. So I knew for sure that it was the Mirapex doing it to me and I haven’t been on it since. I called my doctor and told them that I wanted to stop taking it and why and the nurse said she would tell the doctor.
The problem is with my so-called good doctor is that he had also sent me to the lab to get blood work done because he had said that when women have Restless Leg Syndrome it could mean low iron count. So I got the blood work back and I still haven’t heard anything from them. They were supposed to call me this past Monday and I have been calling them and still nothing. I will be contacting them again next Monday.
Other side effects for Mirapex you need to be aware of are compulsive gambling, compulsive shopping, compulsive eating (especially late night cravings of sweets), hallucinations, and really vivid dreams. Some people have also reported that before taking Mirapex they did not have the need to look at pornography but after taking the Mirapex they started watching porn as if it was a bad habit. Another side effect is increased or decreased sexual desire. It even says on the commercial that people have reported the need to gamble more. I read on one forum that someone had the need to gamble so bad that they were out of thousands of dollars because of their compulsive gambling addiction. I cannot believe that a medication could do this but it is true.
So I warn you that if you have been prescribed Mirapex and you start to have any of these side effects then you need to call your doctor immediately and stop taking it right away. With the severity of these side effects, I think the FDA should really look into this medication and maybe take it off of the market until they can make a medication that does not have side effects such as these.
