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A cautionary tale... I was diagnosed in 2001 at age 47. My earliest drug was Sinemet and it did nothing, so we stopped it. As my symptoms got more and more maddening, I was then put on a low dose of Mirapex, which made me sleepy, and a low dose of Sinemet, titrating all the way. I couldn't take the sleepiness, so I was switched over to Requip. I seemed to tolerate it a bit better, but was continually sleepy, taking naps. Truth be told, I was not handling the whole thing well, complaining a lot and giving in to depression a lot. Because I complained, my neuro prescribed more drugs, (what else do neuro's do?) adding in Selegiline for good measure, and increased the dosages on Sinemet and Requip bit by bit until I was quite OVER medicated to the point where I fell asleep at the wheel at 2 PM, and had a serious accident. After this shock, I looked at the drugs, all of them, as NOT my friends, and I wanted nothing more than to be free of them. I worked on that, and today I am off Selegiline, I'm off Requip, and I'm down to a manageable level of Sinemet and Stalevo (I can't remember exactly when I started Stalevo, but it seems to compliment Sinemet well.) I took everything down to the bare minimum, and then gradually back up a little bit. I never quite made it out of the Rx maze entirely, but now I prefer to address the whole mess from a bit undermedicated, rather than overmedicated like I was. Today I use Sinemet CR 50/200 3 times a day, Stalevo 100 3 times, and Parcopa ODT 25/100, at my discretion, whenever I need a quick boost (well, sort of quick) I usually resort to Parcopa only once or twice per week. Now if my insurance would stop forcing me to take the crappy generic brands, I'd be on easy street! Note: I feel that a good workout controls my symptoms better than any drug I take, including single malt scotch! -----Original Message----- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of mschild Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 2:31 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Requip Ldopa is still the´gold standard´. It has side effects but its efficacy goes on for many years. All agonists have side effects also and are usually not prescribed for people aver 65 years old, at least in Europe because of the possible cognitive effects. Every PWP is different and everyone can choose the best treatment/ maryse ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn