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Dear List,

Have any of you ever attempted a Drugs Holiday, with the intention of either: stopping meds altogether, see how bad/good you are/were,
or just to re-adjust the meds, and how successful/unsuccessful were you?

I am pasting an answer from Jorge A. Romero, who had seen one of
my earlier postings, thanks for the answer, Jorge.

"Jorge's reply";

Some years ago, Bob Feldman from Boston University promoted heavily the concept of "drug holidays"
for PWP.   It was determined, however, that the benefit from the drug holiday came NOT from the
holiday itself, but from the fact that many PWPs are overtreated, and would benefit from a dose
reduction and readjustment.  Indeed, the drug holiday provided an opportunity to start again from
below and retitrate upwards, and many PWPs found that they did better with lower doses, or even
omitting drugs that they were taking - but none, to my recollection, did well without any drugs.

Another observation that arose from the drug holiday studies was that sometimes the effects of the
drugs do not wash out as fast as one would predict.  Some PWPs continued to get increasingly stiff
and frozen over several days, up to one or two weeks after stopping the medications.  In your case,
since you have self-imposed such a drug holiday program, I would watch for this possibility over the
next several days.

If you do need to restart the drugs, I would take the opportunity to do it cautiously and
systematically - not immediately reporting all the old meds.  I would add one at a time, and observe
for several days after each addition or dose adjustment, to make sure you do not get back into the
same situation that led you to this point.  You should do this with the guidance of your
neurologist.

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