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At 10:44 PM 2000/04/25 -0400, "William A. Parrette" <[log in to unmask]> wrote, in part: > There has been a lot of talk about Sinemet over the last cou- > ple of days. Now, I know that everybody is different and every- > body reacts differently to their medications. But, I am kind of > curious why I am *so* different? ... or, at least it seems that > way to me. > I am currently 46 and I was diagnosed four years ago. My > first neuro. put me on Sinemet 25/100 at two tablets a day. I > noticed no change in my symptoms. My second neuro. put me on the > same 25/100 at the same dosage of two tablets a day. Again, I > noticed no change in my symptoms. This doctor bumped me up to > four tablets a day, but there were still no changes in my symp- > toms. My third neuro. changed the prescription to Sinemet CR > 50/200 at two tablets a day, but (again) there was no noticeable > change in any of my symptoms. > My current neuro. put me on three tablets of Sinemet 25/250 > per day. And, this was the first time that I had noticed any > change at all. Some of the symptoms were actually reduced and it > was noticeable. But, also noticeable, was a major dyskinesia in > the form of my head bobbing a lot when I was talking. This neu- > ro. then "bumped me down" to CR 50/200 at *four tablets a day* -- > and we're talking about maybe pushing that up to five a day if I > can find a way to wake myself at two in the morning. > What confuses me is that many people that have been discussing > the effectiveness and dosage of Sinemet here in this forum for > the last couple of days have said that they are taking the non-CR > 25/100 -- and have been for many years -- and it does, in fact, > relieve their symptoms. hi bill my 'take' [i.e. my best guesstimate as a non-medico] on these two doseage levels: 3x25/250IR = [Instant Release Sinemet] 75 mg available carbidopa 750 mg available levodopa 4x50/200CR = [Controlled Release Sinemet] 200mg carbidopa less 25% = 150 mg available carbidopa 800 mg levodopa less 25% = 600 mg available levodopa these two doseage levels are the first ones you've had that meet the suggested daily minimum dose of carbidopa for me to be able to crank up my detecting/sniffing skills further [such as they are], there's at least one critical element missing from this equation. prepare for the jaNET INTERrogation! what were/are your symptoms? pre-diagnosis? post-diagnosis? 4 years post-diagnosis? in what way were they reduced by the 3x25/250IR sinemet doseage? in what way were they affected by the 4x50/200CR sinemet doseage? why does your neuro think a fifth 50/200CR would benefit you at the cost of interrupting sleep? why you are on your fourth neuro? janet "kinsey" paterson janet paterson 53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset a new voice: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ 613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0