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Ken,

I am answering your question to the listserv because I have the same concern,
and can share what we know right now.  My mother, who is in an assisted living
situation,  has had increasing difficulty sleeping the last few weeks.  She
sleeps a few hours, then is up needing to go to the bathroom frequently
(sometimes multiple times/hour) and wandering around, resulting in a need for
constant supervision because of her danger of falling.   We have no idea whether
the fundamental problem is the need to uriniate (which we understand is made
worse by the withdrawal of Sinement CR during the sleeping hours) or confusion
about day and night caused by her dementia, or the interaction of the two.  The
APDA newsletter recently had an article on the frequency of urination problem,
and described Detrol, Ditropan and DDAVP (vasopressin) at bedtime as effective
treatments.

Her neurologist chose to treat it as a "behavioral problem", and prescribed
Navane, which seemed to make her instability on her feet much worse. We read on
the internet that it was contraindicated for PD and have insisted that it not be
given - one of the good reasons to have your health care surrogate forms in
place!  We also convinced them to spread her Sinemet out - since her Sinement CR
(50/200) was backed off from 4/day to 3/day, she was  getting all three pills at
4 hour intervals and then going 14-16 hours to the AM dose.  This seems to be
helpful, but has not resolved either problem (wandering or frequent urination).

We are getting a second opinion today.  Any additional information any of you
can share today before we see the Dr (mid afternoon CA time) would be especially
appreciated!  I have read the research information Janet Patterson dug up from
the archives, which certainly confirmed that the problem exists, but I didn't
see much in the way of suggestion what to do about it!  I'm sure that is what
you are looking for too.

Carol