[accu2001]

Most PD patients start with an agonist and as their pd progresses add Levodopa.I was diagnosed 7 years ago at the age of 71 and started medicating with Levodopa.I am taking 300mg daily.Recently my symptoms have progressed,especially my rigidity.As the Levodopa causes a mild case of Dyskinesa,I prefer not to increase the Levodopa.From your experience ,would adding a agonist decrease ther rigidity?

[reverett123]

I take sinemet and requip. 600 mg and 24 mg respectively. Lately I have been experimenting and find that requip greatly increases my own dyskinesia but that the sinemet is much smoother. Sinemet doses of 1200 mg are not unusual, so you have a high ceiling. And there is the age issue - at 59 I have to "pace" myself differently than you do at 78. Every new drug brings its own problems, too. Finally, Ldopa causes a certain amount of damage itself so I take alpha lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine to counter some of that. Good luck.

Originally Posted by accu2001

Most PD patients start with an agonist and as their pd progresses add Levodopa.I was diagnosed 7 years ago at the age of 71 and started medicating with Levodopa.I am taking 300mg daily.Recently my symptoms have progressed,especially my rigidity.As the Levodopa causes a mild case of Dyskinesa,I prefer not to increase the Levodopa.From your experience ,would adding a agonist decrease ther rigidity?

[Jim091866]

As you are probably aware what works for some may not work for you. I too had increasing dyskinsia with requip, unable to titrate my levodopa down enough to get it right. Remember an agonist is supposed to kind of boost your levodopa effects. I had good results with comtan, a COMT inhibitor. It helps. the dopamine that you have (levodopa or otherwise) no be broken down as fast so it will last longer. I currently am taking 1 1/4 tablets, that difference in 1/4 and 1/2 are real but I didn't think so at first. Good luck.