[Stitcher]

Rotigotine Skin Patch May Ease Restless Legs Symptoms

Friday, May 30, 2008; 12:00 AM
Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...002573_pf.html

FRIDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Skin patches that contain the drug rotigotine help relieve restless legs syndrome (RLS), according to a German study.

Dopaminergic drugs -- which stimulate the body's dopamine system -- are currently used as a first-line treatment for RLS, and rotigotine is already used to treat Parkinson's disease. This study of 458 people with moderate to severe RLS examined the efficacy of rotigotine skin patches.

The patients were randomly assigned to apply skin patches with 1 milligrams of rotigotine (115 patients), 2 milligrams (112), or 3 milligrams (114) once a day for six months. A fourth group of 117 patients received a placebo.

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[olsen]

The above is a Report of a German Study--maybe they did not receive the memo stating the patches were defective? Maybe it doesn't really matter in RLS if one receives the dopamine agonist or not? Maybe the study was completed before the recall and is now just being reported? Maybe the patches work in Germany but not in the USA? Maybe the patches are defective but have not been recalled in Germany because their equivalent of the FDA is ignoring the problem? Maybe defective rotigitine patches work in RLS but not PD? Maybe RLS is so over diagnosed, most individuals do not really require therapy? (medicalizing a symptom to induce purchasing a pharmaceutical agent--Oh who would do that?)
So many questions. We still have a "starter box' of rotigitine patches. (For any individual who has real RLS, my apologies for the next statement: Might save them in case I develop RLS...madelyn