A little more about Levodopa

 

Here we are on another Friday, so want to know more about Levodopa, if the answer is no you may want to visit someone else.

When someone has been on a high dosage of Levodopa for a long time the brain changes its response to mechanisms and becomes more and more resistant to the drug.

As a result of this the patients will often find themselves developing different reactions to the treatment. Often the reactions are not the right type with severe abnormal involuntary movements to severe stiffness and slowness in their movements. These types of reactions can be a major problem, changes can be made to dosage as well as other changes but once these side effects have developed it is rarely possible to suppress them completely.

Naturally these abnormal movements cause a lot of distress to the one with PD but also to their loved ones who may become embarrassed by the reactions.

The movements are typically writhing movements of limbs and body or chewing or licking of the mouth with a strange look on the face. If the movements become so bad they interfere with balance and walking the benefits and not so good and reducing the dosage becomes a must. This can be hard for the patient, but it is better to reduce the dose which must be too high as it is the high dosage that is causing the problem.

The period of action in a single dose is about four hours which is why it is taken after each main meal. I take mine every four hours. It sometimes becomes necessary for the first dose of the day to be taken early in the morning before attempting to wash and dress. As time goes on, we start to learn how our bodies react and when the meds are wearing off. Some say there is no point in taking it before going to bed, but I disagree if I don’t take it before bed my body will not settle.

Many notice over time that the length of time they feel ok after the meds reduces and some patients need to take their medication every two hours.

There is a controlled release version of the drug, but it takes an hour or more to kick in which is why some like to take it at night before bed.

                        The medication I take