Anyone Tried Mirapex (Pramiprexole)?

I have seen some older posts and research success involving Mirapex and Tinnitus, but not much follow up. Does anyone have any new information. Have you tried it?

 

This is the first day that I started with Pramipexol...
Let us hope for the best!

 

Hi Tigo, did it help?

 

A big no.

 

@Tigo how long were you on it?

 

I read that the Parkinson's drug Miripex (Pramipexole) might help with tinnitus noise. Well my GP prescribed it and after 4 days my tinnitus went through the roof. I used to sleep through the night for the most part, now I'm awake at 2 AM with screeching tinnitus like I never had before... and it lasts all day long.

I'm wondering if this drug is the cause.

I have had tinnitus from hearing loss for about 16 months.

There are older posts on this drug, BUT I'm hoping there will be some more recent posts regarding and success or failures with this med.

Thank you.

 

What dosages are you on? And are you on the extended release? It’s a real heavy drug. People that claim to benefit from it generally have taken the non-extended -release version. Lack of sleep always has a negative effect on my tinnitus, and most people here will concur that (lack of sleep makes it worse) and one of the side effects of the drug is insomnia.

If you haven’t notice any positive effect, I would wean off it and/or stop, but consult your GP please. Usually those that have noticed improvements do so in about a week or so. But mind you this all anecdotal. I haven’t taken it, but I read a lot about it. I was hesitant because of the side effects.

I also think medications are a gamble. What might work for one may not for another. It really is a trial and error.

I think @Pleasure_Paulie took it for some time. He said it did help but he stopped eventually (side effects), you can PM him to get advice and get more info. Keep us posted. I will pray for you.

 

Did your tinnitus go back down after discontinuing?

 

It is crazy that for tinnitus there are papers supporting sulpiride plus melatonin (dopamine reduction) or pramipexole (dopamine enhancer). Nothing is ever simple with this bloody condition.

 

Sorry asked the wrong person - did your tinnitus come down after stopping? I have a neurologist appointment and am considering asking for this.

 

I started taking this today. I don't expect much but here's hoping. Will update.

 

So far this has had a pretty immediate impact in terms of cutting the volume of my Tinnitus and the distortions I get. However, I'm aware that for most responders, the medication loses its effect after some time. For now I'm just happy to be benefitting. I can say it definitely has an effect for me.

 

GBB, I know you have been talking about this elsewhere, but wondering what your experience with Pramipexole has been overall? Initially it lowered the volume and addressed distorsions, but then you got back reactivity once you went back home I recall? How is the drug doing now? I talked to my GP and might be able to try it soon but I'm concerned by the comment above by @Cape crusader and I definitely can't afford any worsening. @Greg Sacramento what do you think? The Hungarian study is encouraging but not good quality. I'm trying to get Sulodexide.

@FGG have you heard anything about this dopamine agonist? Anyone else?

 

It definitely made a difference for me, but I've had external factors like noise doing their best to spike me. Overall I would stand by what I said about moving the upper and lower bounds of my fluctuations downward, it's just not a cure and my case is bad so I still have bad days. I would say I now have "fair" days as well, whereas before that never happened. I feel far from normal and am still searching for other things to add incremental % improvement - my hope is this can be one of many tools used in conjunction to approach normalcy. The Pramipexole itself will stay in my "actively used" list of things.

 

Pramipexole is very hard to taper and it can be quite dangerous. With a taper -may need to start on high dose gabapentin or pregabalin and very slowly reduce the pramipexole and you don't want to do that again.

Pentoxifylline or Sulodexide. Plus Glycinate Magnesium - one half tablet twice a day - two hours before medication use. NAC - one tablet daily and also not at the same time with medication. NAC, maybe two capsules a day to improve redox status.

 

Sorry, I really don't know much about the drug or its use in tinnitus.

 

This is interesting and weirdly may be relevant to my case too as high dose Azithromycin damages the stria vascularis.

What is the Pentoxifylline dosage? When do you suspect a microcirculation problem?

 

400mg twice a day, but since Dan C. had used other meds where renal toxicity could have reaction, his doctor might have him start @ 400mg once a day. But, 400mg X2 only slightly increases the exposure to metabolite V.

It's not known by mechanism how Pentoxifylline increases blood flow to target microcirculation. Blood viscosity is lowered, erythrocyte flexibility is increased, leukocyte deformability is increased, and neutrophil adhesion and activation are decreased. Overall, tissue oxygenation is significantly increased.

Problems begin - when AUC is increased 6.5-fold and the Cmax is increased 7.5-fold, but this usually will happen with on label use. With on label, not off label, hospitalization 24h is needed, then after blood work, outpatient use is granted... With off label for oxygenation (non liver concern) NAC injections accompany. I had this treatment with Warfarin, after a patient dumped a bottle of pills into my coffee and then I drank it.

 

NAC always gives me a bad headache. Is NAC necessary with this treatment?

 

@FGG NAC is not needed. NAC can cause some small blood vessel problems, capillary loop problems, raise blood pressure and irritate eyes. For me, too much vitamin A does the same.

 

Yes, Greg, I have read of people having dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome (DAWS) and it looks horrible.

My doctor would like me to try Pramipexole but I'm concerned. Sulodexide is not available in the UK and he is not keen on that type of medication or Pentoxifylline, for some reason. If the Pramipexole works I would desperately need to keep taking it as I need relief because I'm suffering too much, but then coming off it later on could be very difficult and backfire big time even with new conditions. There is also risk of augmentation if it works and after one is on a high dose hell can break loose. I don't think that, even if effective, it could cure the tinnitus as in me stopping taking it and then being fine, I would probably have to stay on it with all the risks of downregulation of dopamine.

As my mental health is not optimal, I'm also concerned that a dopamine agonist could increase my anxiety and worsen my already difficult sleep. On the other hand I have no other hope at the moment, the symptom keeps slightly worsening every week, the only thing I could do would be tapering the Clonazepam in case that is responsible of the worsening but I don't have the strength to do it. I don't really know what to do, I'm desperate.

 

@Chinmoku A medical toxicologist medication specialist team might be able to establish some insight. In the US, that team includes interventional radiologists (for change comparisons from your previous radiological studies) and labs such as Quest Diagnostics. Quest has many tests for rare medication toxicity, but many specialized doctors don't know what tests are needed, so a medication toxicologist may also need to consult with a lab such as Quest before ordering tests. Below is just a basic list, but they have panel tests that goes way beyond.

https://www.questdiagnostics.com/ho...ervices/condition/toxicology/Available-Tests/

 

@Chinmoku, hope you are managing with things.

Did you ever get a DNA test to find out about what could help/harm you?