Research on ropinirole treatment of restless leg syndrome

Terèzia Seres¹, Zoltán Szakács²,Éva Kellős¹, Márta Simon², Attila Terray Horváth², Veronika Fáy³, Jelena Karaszova³, Andrea Kontra³, Olivia Lalátka³, Mária Csóka⁴, Gyula Domján⁵

Summary
Introduction. The restless leg syndrome is a clinical syndrome which frequently remains unrecognized. It belongs to a group of sleep-dependent movement disorders. It is the second most common reason for chronic sleep deficiency and hypersomnia during the day. In accordance with the international recommendations, its treatment is to be started with a dopamine agonist, the most favourable of them being (due to their efficiency and few side effects) the new selective D2/D3 agonists.
Aim. The aims of the study were to explore whether ropinirol remained effective with time, whether the dose of the drug escalated, and whether side effects affected therapy.
Material and methods. In this paper, the effectiveness of a D2/D3 agonist, ropinirole, was tested in patients with restless leg syndrome. 51 patients suffering from idiopathic restless leg syndrome received ropinirole in monotherapy in a dosage of 0.25-1.5 mg/day. The efficiency of the medicine has been verified in three ways: with tracking surveys, actigraph testing and the Forced Immobilization Test.
Results. 80% of our patients responded weel to the therapy. There was a considerable improvement based on the tracking surveys after ropinirole treatment. Time without movement of the limbs measured by actigraph testing, as well as the time spent in bed, were significantly longer. Also, the FIT index was lower after than before the treatment.
Conclusions. Based on our results, it can be stated that the restless leg syndrome can be effectively treated with ropinirole monotherapy.

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