Dx 2000. Age 50. I started on Requip. Year 2 added sinemet. I aggressively pushed my drugs to get performance. In hindsight, which is supposed to be perfect but regarding PD is far less than perfect, I'm thankful for the extended quality time sinemet and Requip gave me. I also knew I was doing serious damage to my body by taking drugs that treated symptoms and not the cause of PD. I dumbed myself down by trusting in doctors, researchers, drug companies, my fellow parkies, and myself to find a way back to health through modern medicine before my time ran out. I dug in and pursued alternative medicine but drugs worked so well with seemingly endless possibilities.

It was easy to get caught up in the cult of drugs. One belief commonly held by many on this forum is that we should go with the smallest dose of any med that gives us relief of symptoms and increase our dosage as slowly as possible. We speculated that we will get "more mileage" from a given med with fewer side effects and that side effects are dose related. Another belief was that the need to increase our dosages was due to the progressive nature of PD. We preferred to think that new symptoms were due to the progression of our disease and that we could mix and match drugs endlessly. We had a designer disease and we we're all "special." We had an "extra special fear" of sinemet because we were told it works so fabulously well and then for some poorly understood but "unique" reason quits working. It seemed to inevitably and irreversibly led to dyskinesia; the dark, black, horrific outer boundary of life with PD. Many of us, when finally experiencing mild dyskinesia, persist in thinking that we can adjust our drugs and keep on medicating. For those die hards who persist, it gets worse, much worse. When you are squirming on the ground with your arms wrapped around your own neck struggling to constrain yourself to not break your neck or dislocate your shoulders again or more severely with every muscle in your body spastically cramping and feeling like it has been beaten with a baseball bat, then you have a slightly clearer view of the development and nature of the "side effects" of drugs.

I am attempting to provide the background of experience I have with PD drugs and Requip in particular. I hit the dead end described above not because I abused drugs or was reckless or didn't try to take care of myself. The 5-10 year limit of sinemet working nicely goes by quickly. It doesn't matter how you get there. Requip and the rest of the drugs you can mix and match hold little if any special magic. Looking back I see the million dollar sales hype about possible neuron protection, extended on time, delaying the need for sinemet, less side effects, decreased off time, more sex, more sleep.
Give me a break. Folks, we're choosing between a Pepsi or a Coke. It's like the presidential race. We have a one party system, the Republicrats. Requip Mirapex in a tight battle for most popular agonist of the year. The "five years away" from a miracle drug nonsense has been going on for 20 years.

Requip was my fave. I had problems with sleep attacks etc. in the beginning but went to 30 mg/day Requip combined with Stalevo 150 every three hours 24/7 and did just peachy. The real problem is the progressive global damage to our brains that Requip and Sinemet confuse and distract our attention from. When off time does not respond to drugs, I believe we are well into simple drug addiction and we have lost sight of PD.

I would not pretend to have the understanding or knowledge to be able to tell someone else what to do. Myself, I'm trying to find my way back. I quite Requip and Cymbalta August 1st of this year. I'm taking plain Sinemet. I can't escape a lot of off time no matter how much sinemet I take. I have no problem with dyskinesia. Depression was devastating for two months and is finally showing improvement. The psychiatric side of things is tough with loss of emotion and drive and I'm unsure how much improvement I've made and am fighting off doubts about recovery. The psychiatric problems that I thought could be from Requip are gone. I'm virtually pain free with no muscle problems for the first time in 8 years. All that's left of physical symptoms beside on/off time is a little bit of tingling in my feet and occasional numbness in my toes.