Patient/caregiver was educated on how to take Ropinirole as follows:
- Maintain strict compliance with intake of the medication as ordered, with regards to dosage and frequency, to derive the benefit of the medication.
- Take the medication at the same time, every day, to avoid forgetting the medication. Compliance with the time of medication intake can help with maintaining ideal levels of the medication in the blood, which can contribute towards desired therapeutic results and prevent toxicity.
- Do not change the dose on this medication without consulting your doctor.
- This medication can induce some nausea and vomiting, when taken on empty stomach. Taking the medication with a glass of water and some food or snack can help avoid these unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms.
- Ropinirole can induce some dizziness and make one drowsy. It can also cause some hypotension contributing to the drowsiness. If you receive a starter kit for ropinirole, the pills are marked with the day you are scheduled to take it. The pills are arranged in the starter kit, in gradually increasing dose. Observing compliance with the instructions on intake schedule can help with gradual increment in the dose, thus reducing the risk for unpleasant side-effects.
- Do not take ropinirole with alcohol. Alcohol can compound the drowsiness and hypotension ropinirole can cause, thus compromising safety and potentiating a serious risk for accidents and falls.
- Take the regular tablet as a whole. If you encounter difficulty swallowing the whole tablet, you may cut the tablet and swallow it in pieces with a glass of water. You may also crush the tablet and sprinkle the powder on a spoonful of soft jelly or applesauce and swallow the jelly or sauce along with the medication.
- If you are prescribed an extended or controlled release tablet, do not cut or crush the tablet. Cutting or crushing the extended or controlled release tablet can result in rapid absorption of the drug into the blood stream, thus resulting in toxicity and compromised therapeutic effects.
- Ropinirole takes a few weeks to fairly balance the chemicals in the brain, before any relief from symptoms of Parkinson’s or restless leg syndrome is noted. Do not discontinue taking the medication without your physician’s consult, as you failed to see the improvement with symptoms, immediately after taking the medication.
- Ropinirole only helps by affecting the fine balance between the chemical neurotransmitters in the brain and might not be a permanent cure for Parkinson’s or restless leg syndrome. So, continue taking ropinirole, even if your symptoms are well-controlled. Discontinuing the medication abruptly can result in disruption of this chemical balance in the brain, resulting in reverting of symptoms. Also, abrupt discontinuation of ropinirole intake can result in development of withdrawal symptoms and individuals can present with increasing akinesia, rigidity, tremors, and/or leg pain. Discontinuation with ropinirole intake can be gradual and only on your physician recommendation.
- As the balance between the chemicals in the brain has to be finely regulated to help relieve the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and restless leg syndrome, the dose of ropinirole also needs to be finely regulated, in order to accomplish this goal. Your physician could change the dose of ropinirole, based on the response and side-effects developed. Maintain compliance with follow-up physician appointments and be accommodative to the plan of dose changes, until you show an optimum response.
- Notify your doctor of any unresolved and worsening akinesia, rigidity, and tremor, if ropinirole is being used for control of Parkinson’s symptoms. Notify your doctor of any unresolved and worsening pain in the legs, while at rest, if ropinirole is being used for restless leg syndrome. Also, notify your doctor regarding exacerbation of depressive symptoms, if any, or any other continuing unpleasant side-effects, so that, an alternative plan of care could be considered.
- If you miss a dose, try taking it at the earliest notice of noncompliance. If it is time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and take the dose scheduled. Do not take an extra dose to try making up for the missed dose. Notify your doctor and other health care personnel regarding your dose noncompliance.
