Pramipexole by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Pramipexole, a compound from Boehringer Ingelheim research, is approved in the U.S. for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of idiopathic Parkinson's disease. An application has been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pramipexole for the treatment of moderate to severe primary RLS. Pramipexole is supported by nearly a decade of real-world experience in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and approximately 10 million prescriptions for pramipexole have been written in the U.S. since its launch in 1997.

Pramipexole Side Effect
Pramipexole may cause patients to fall asleep without any warning, even while doing normal daily activities such as driving. Another side effect of pramipexole is hallucinations. Sometimes patients may feel dizzy, sweaty or nauseated upon standing up. The most common pramipexole side effects in clinical trials for RLS are nausea, headache, and tiredness. The most commonly reported pramipexole side events in early and late Parkinson's disease in clinical trials are dizziness, involuntary movement, hallucinations, headache, difficulty falling asleep, sleepiness, and nausea. Patients and caregivers should be informed that impulse control disorders / compulsive behaviors may occur while taking medicines, including pramipexole, to treat Parkinson's disease.

Pramipexole for RLS
According to a study published in the journal Neurology, pramipexole significantly improved RLS symptoms in patients with moderate to severe restless legs syndrome (RLS) versus those on placebo. Therapeutic effects were evident within 1 week of initiating treatment. Primary efficacy endpoints were measured by patient ratings of symptom severity using the International RLS Study Group Rating Scale (IRLS), and clinician ratings of improvement on the Clinical Global Impressions- Improvement Scale (CGI-I). Secondary endpoints for the study included the Patient Global Impression (PGI) responder rate, visual analogue scale (VAS) ratings of sleep, quality of life as measured by the Johns Hopkins Restless Legs Syndrome Qualify of Life (RLS-QOL) questionnaire, and safety.