 |
 |
A long time ago, when "drug holidays" were recommended, it was found that the abrupt cessation of antiparkinsonian drug therapy, on very rare ocassions, led to ridity, fever, and elevated CPK, much like the neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Since then, the practice has been to recommend tapering. This applies not only to Sinemet, but also to dopamine agonists and anticholinergic drugs like Artane and Cogentin. The problem is that the cases of this complication were very rare, so no one really knows how far one has to drop to provoke the problem. I have NEVER seen it by dropping from Sinemet 25/100 three times daily to zero in one day, and I routinely use that as the last step in my tapering program in the few situations in which I may recommend stopping the drug. Jorge Romero, MD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn