Dear Teresa: My husband has been on Bromocriptine for about 9 months after
being on Sinimet for l0 yr. He is presently up to a 20mg/day intake ( he
started
with 2.5mg pills, one per day and GRADUALLY increased to the present level).
As you have probably learned, Bromo is an agonist, which is supposed to help
in
a different way to help the Sinimet be more efficiently used. In fact, we
were hoping
to be able to reduce the Sinimet amount per day since he is now experiencing
episodes of dyskinesia between doses and we have tried changing the intervals,
amounts , etc but the involuntary movements still plaque him periodically but
not
too drastically. Unfortunately, reducing the daily amount of Sinimet led to
dystonia
so he is staying stabilized on 800mg Sinimet CR daily with the Bromocriptine
given
in 5mg doses four times daily at 6 hour intervals with the Sinimet. After he
reached
l5mg /day we noticed a "freeing up " of his walking and he now experiences
more
time of "normal" feelings in his ability to turn and walk without the
freezing up he
used to have.
He does experience some hallucinations but they don't give him any real
difficulty since he is aware of what they are and they don't frighten him and
we both
know he is not "crazy". We can't be sure if the Bromocriptine is
contributing to that
since he had some before and it could also be due to the Sinimet or even the
small
dose of Cogentin he still takes a day for controlling tremors.
My husband turns 70 this year and we felt this experience may be
helpful to
you in your decisions - the Neurologist was willing to prescribe the newer
Mirapex
for him but I've been hearing about possible blood pressure problems with it
and it
seems everything has side effects of some kind so we feel the Bromo is
suitable for
him - I understand the dosage can be taken up to 30mg/day so we still have
room
for more improvement - but we like to take things slowly, make few changes as
possible and stay on as few different medications as possible . It has
worked for
us since my husband is still very active and independant and feels fortunate
for the
availability of the Bromocriptine. Best wishes in your search for the
optimum
medication ........ Marie CG for husband in Texas,U.S.A.
