Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronhutton
It is very bad to suddenly stop Levodopa altogether, but it is fairly safe to slowly reduce over a longish period. Add up how much levodopa you were taking before and after.
Also useful to know how long you have had PD and have been taking Sinemet.
Look up "neuroleptic malignent syndrome". This is caused by sudden total discontinuation of Sinemet.
Ron
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I just want to stress how important this is- if you have been using Sinemet over the course of a year or years, you should be weaning off over a
course of months, not weeks or days! This I have both read and heard directly from my neuro. I had to abruptly stop all my meds due to pregnancy and ended up looking I had PD for 20 odd years- I had what is referred to as an "akinetic crisis". The good thing is that this was not entirely permanent; however, I did permanently decline from very mild and intermittent tremor, to more moderate and near always present tremor (when unmedicated) plus I added a little more stiffness into the mix. I believe this was due to withdrawal of the drugs, not my pregnancy. Please take this very seriously- read these and talk to your neurologist.
http://www.uptodate.com/patients/con...Bz2D&refNum=46
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l5672j67134074q5/
Laura