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Carol Horner wrote: > Mirapex has been reported by several list members to keep RLS at bay. Parkinson's drug effective against restless legs syndrome WESTPORT, June 10, 1998 (Reuters) - Pramipexole, which is approved for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, may also be an effective treatment for patients with restless legs syndrome, according to a report that appears in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Dr. Siong-Chi Lin and others at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville in Florida identified a series of 16 patients with restless legs syndrome in whom daytime augmentation of symptoms had occurred with other dopaminergic agents. They treated the patients with pramipexole (Mirapex, Pharmacia and Upjohn), a nonergot dopamine D2 subgroup receptor agonist, titrated to a mean dose of 0.3 mg. After 2 to 3 months of therapy, 12 patients reported improvements in nocturnal leg restlessness, 10 reported decreases in involuntary leg movements and 11 reported improvements in insomnia compared with baseline. "Overall, [pramipexole] was well tolerated," Dr. Lin and colleagues say. The most common adverse effects of the drug were fatigue and stiffness. In two additional "treatment naive" patients newly diagnosed with restless legs syndrome, the investigators found that pramipexole significantly reduced periodic leg movements after 2 weeks and after 1 month of therapy, respectively. Although future, controlled studies should be performed to confirm the current findings, the Mayo team believes that their data support the use of pramipexole as "...an effective agent in the treatment of [restless legs syndrome]." Mayo Clin Proc 1998;73:497-500. -- Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada [log in to unmask]