soccertese writes "think about the fact that 14mg of requip = 1000mg or more of C/L". Although there is no unanimity about the equivalency relationship been Requip (ropinirole) and C/L a typical value is 20:1 [1, 2], which would imply that 14mg Requip is equivalent to 280mg of C/L.

The point of levodopa overshoot is not, as I see it, to get an increase in "on" time by taking large doses, but rather to provide a warning that many people are on a regimen (large, infrequent doses) which result in unnecessarily large concentrations of levodopa with high rates of change of plasma levels.

soccertese is right to bring up the cost implications of using drugs with more advanced delivery methods. In my opinion, much of their benefits are DIYable. jeffreyn's pill cutting experience is useful.

References

[1] "Levodopa Dose Equivalency: A Systematic Review"
Dr Claire Smith, Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit
8th June 2010

[2] "Cálculo de unidades de equivalencia de levodopa en enfermedad de Parkinson"
Amin Cervantes-Arriaga1, Mayela Rodríguez-Violante1, Alejandra Villar-Velarde, Teresa Corona
Arch Neurocien (Mex) Vol. 14, No. 2: 116-119; 2009

John

john, i wasn't trying to say they are equivalent but i did which was a mistake. my apologies. what i was pointing out is that the brain just uses a tiny amount of dopamine which is verified by the much smaller amount of the long lived agonists needed my point is it's a 1to1 ratio of l-dopa vs agonists in how many of each binds to dopamine receptors, actually, i take that back cuz dopamine binds to all 5 receptor types and agonists i think only bind to 1 which makes l-dopa superior. might be in over my head but i hope you see my point, being more abstract than trying to give advice

i was kind of describing the irony of the situation, after 40 years since sinemet came out advanced pd'ers are still working their butts off with getting enough l-dopa into their brain when the brain only needs a tiny amount. and the new solutions are just to pump more
l-dopa into your body with pumps or newer CR types. yet there are the long lived agonists that require the addition of l-dopa eventually. i've never researched this but it would be interesting to find out why better agonists haven't been developed?