I am now taking 1.5 tabs of regular Sinemet 10/100 3 times a day, but am thinking of adding Sinemet CR to my morning meds, to get me through the wearing off/ boot up period between my 6:30am dose of Sinemet and the 9:30 dose of Sinemet.

The 6:30am dose starts wearing off around 9:15, then I take another dose @ 9:30-- which doesn't seem to really kick in until around 10:15. This means I have a 60 minute window during which it is harder to type, think & speak-- and I have painful leg cramps, too. (dystonia?)

Mon-Fri, I work 7-11am out of my home office as a service rep for a large ISP, working over the phone. That 1 hour of painful leg cramps, increased tremors, difficulty typing and slowed thought and speech is especially difficult then.

My specialist has prescribed Sinemet CR at a 200 l-dopa level, reasoning that it will actually metabolize at around 168 mg of l-dopa, the closest he can get to the 150mgs of l-dopa I currently take in a dose. I would take the SInemet CR at 6:30am, along with 1 or 1.5 tabs of the regular 10/100 Sinemet.

Does anyone have personal experience with adding Sinemet CR to your usual intake of regular Sinemet, as far as:

* how long from ingestion to boot up?

* how long it stays on?

* specific side effects you have experienced?

* things to be careful of/ watch out for?

Thanks in advance for your input.


George