I’ve tried both Mirapex and Lyrica for it. Mirapex made my mind race a million thoughts a minute and kept me up. I wasn’t about to add a sleep medicine to go with it.

Lyrica worked for a while, then needed a higher dose for the same results. Eventually quit it all together for six months, then even the low dose did nothing.

So I live with it. I wish there were more options, and I get sick of hearing of RLS and how quite a few people I know think they have it.

What is different now? There is a patented product to use and money to be made.

Meanwhile, the “experts” funded by the drug company go about telling people how many people “need” to be treated and that older meds, like clonazepam, are contraindicated. (It works fine for most of my patients and never ever put one of my bipolars in the hospital with a psychotic decompensation). The big problem is that they don’t make money off clonazepam.

This is why I find “expert panels” and guidelines an unscientific and therefore unprofessional basis for practice decisions as it is clear that they are highly influenced by pharma industry and other “stakeholders”.

It was frankly better when RLS was off the public and most doctors radar and people had to beat the doctor over the head to get treated. At least then you didn’t have tons of people with minor and easily tolerated symptoms getting treatments with risks and costs out of proportion to the benefit.