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Re: using mirapex - hair loss?


Posted by George on June 20, 2000 at 23:03:28:

In Reply to: using mirapex - hair loss? posted by sleepless in walden on June 17, 2000 at 18:09:16:

Linda
I had a direct email from Janet asking me aout hair loss and other Mirapex experiences. I replied but my mail was returned. I thought if I posted the text of my message here Janet might see it.
Janet
To start with I am a 57 year old male with pattern baldness so I can't help you on the hair loss issue. I've had RLS since my late teens but it did not start influencing my sleep until late 30's. I started first treating myself with Vitamin E (1200 per day) in 1985 or so and first had a doctor's treatment in 1987 which was Sirax a mild muscle relaxant I believe. I have gone through about all the ones you read about in the forum over the years, hence the appearance of "knowledgeable".
My experience with Mirapex has been black and white. The white part is that it is the best RLS treatment I've had in terms of efficacy and no rebound or increase of symptoms during the day/evening. I go through many evenings without symptoms. I usually take 0.5 to 0.75 mg around 7:30-8:00 PM. I can fly on airplanes, go to the theater without madness and even have a late restaurant meal and a couple glasses of wine without throwing away a whole night's sleep to pay for it. Okay, the not so good. I have developed central apnea (central apnea is when you just stop breathing when your brain goes to sleep. It requires wakening arousal to start again. Sometimes I am aware of the wakening and a lot of the time I'm not. My average at the lab was 40 times per hour for an average of 30 seconds each time). It started within weeks of switching to first Requip and then to Mirapex. Both of these are classified as "agonist" rather than antagonist drugs like previous ones. All I know is it means Requip, Marquip and Mirapex are similar. I returned to the sleep lab twice since starting on Mirapex last fall. The sleep doc agrees that the Mirapex is the most likely culprit. However since I have also developed some obstructive apnea with my years which she felt was severe enough to warrant treatment anyway, she recommended I stay on Mirapex for the RLS and start bi-pap therapy (the machine) for the apnea. At 10 AM tomorrow I will get the machine.

I hope I've helped. Let me know haw things go with the RLS and hopefully the hair loss is a temporary thing. The best source I've found for RLS info is the web site shown below.

http://www.mlists.net/judson/Elaty.html

Good luck and sweet dreams.

George

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