Any feedback on Artane?
 

I am off of my Mirapex and pretty miserable. I have been really achy and stiff and my tremors are still here. I e-mailed my doctor to let him know. He suggested that I try Artane and called some in for me. I am nervous about it, but I obviously need to try something different. I know that we are all different and we all respond differently to medication. For those of you that have stiffness onset, how did it help you and did you have side effects of the medication? I am mainly concerned with the possibility of dizziness because I am prone to episodes of pretty severe vertigo. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Evonne

Hi Evonne,
First, Aetane is an older medication and the sideffects are well documented. Some people have excellent results stopping tremor with it. For me it did nothing. I hope it works well for you.

GregD

Artane
 

I've been on Artane for over four years now with no problems at all. I also take Mirapex. Why did you doctor take you off the Mirapex? One stops the tremor and the other combats the stiffness, but I'm not sure which does what.

Those two drugs, plus an antidepressant, are the only drugs I used for three years. I added a muscle relaxer because my toe curls but my Parkinson's symptoms have been stablized for the past four years.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

vertigo and artane
 

Have you had your vertigo checked to see if it's BPPV (benign positional postural vertigo -- long name for a fairly common occurence in folks over 60)? It can be very nasty, but also very easy to fix. A search on google will give you skinny on it, and for me a single 10 minute visit to the dr. cleared it up.

The first neurologist that I saw put me on the Mirapex back in May just to see how I responded and the new MDS that I saw took me off because he said based on my exam, PD isn't the first thing that comes to his mind. It was a good idea that I went off of it anyways because I started having too many OCD behaviors and shopping too much! The bad thing is that the stiffness and pain is back like it was before I was on PD meds. I am not sure what to think about that at this point. I am TRYING to leave the thinking up to the doctor...but that is very hard. He told me that there are other things that respond to PD drugs, so the fact that I respond to the PD meds doesn't mean for sure that I have PD. He is a highly respected doctor and I have faith that he will figure out what exactly is going on with me. It is just going to take some time.

I am a little confused because I thought that Artane was mainly used for tremor and my tremor isn't that bad. The stiffness and rigidity that I experience is what causes most of my trouble. I sure the heck hope it helps me with that! Otherwise, it isn't worth the possible side effects.

Thanks for your input.

Evonne

Greg, Thanks for the info. I think the side effects are what scares me the most about the Artane. I just hope it works for stiffness.

Evonne

Evonne, artane affects short term memory. So, I take as little as possible, which is only 2 mg per day.

What kind of pain are you experiencing? Some of mine is from dystonia and muscle spasms. The artane helps with dystonia, and baclofen helps with both symptoms.

I also take neurontin for nerve pain, and etodolac for osteoarthritis.

I know younger people and their docs tend to steer away from the old standbys Sinemet and Amantadine, but they have worked for me at minimal doses for almost eight years now. Of course, most of you know that I also supplement with low dose dextromethorphan and high-dose CoQ10, with seemingly good results.
However, as we all know, everyone is different.