Parkinson's disease

Active Ingredient: Ropinirole

Indication for Ropinirole

Population group: only adults (18 years old or older)
Therapeutic intent: Adjunct - intent

In combination with levodopa, over the course of the disease, when the effect of levodopa wears off or becomes inconsistent and fluctuations in the therapeutic effect occur (“end of dose” or “on-off” type fluctuations).

For this indication, competent medicine agencies globally authorize below treatments:

2 mg once daily for 1 week and thereafter 2-24 mg once daily until sufficient symptomatic control is achieved or maintained

For:

Dosage regimens

Oral, 2 milligrams ropinirole, once daily, over the duration of 1 week. Afterwards, oral, between 4 milligrams ropinirole and 24 milligrams ropinirole, once daily. The maximum allowed total dose is 24 milligrams ropinirole daily.

Detailed description

Individual dose titration against efficacy and tolerability is recommended. Ropinirole prolonged-release tablets should be taken once a day, at a similar time each day.

Initial titration

The starting dose of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets is 2 mg once daily for the first week; this should be increased to 4 mg once daily from the second week of treatment. A therapeutic response may be seen at a dose of 4 mg once daily of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets.

Patients who initiate treatment with a dose of 2 mg/day of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets and who experience side effects that they cannot tolerate, may benefit from switching to treatment with ropinirole film-coated (immediate release) tablets at a lower daily dose, divided into three equal doses.

Therapeutic regimen

Patients should be maintained on the lowest dose of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets that achieve symptomatic control.

If sufficient symptomatic control is not achieved or maintained at a dose of 4 mg once daily of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets, the daily dose may be increased by 2 mg at weekly or longer intervals up to a dose of 8 mg once daily of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets.

If sufficient symptomatic control is still not achieved or maintained at a dose of 8 mg once daily of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets, the daily dose may be increased by 2 mg to 4 mg at two weekly or longer intervals. The maximum daily dose of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets is 24 mg.

It is recommended that patients are prescribed the minimum number of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets that are necessary to achieve the required dose by utilising the highest available strengths of ropinirole prolonged-release tablets.

If treatment is interrupted for one day or more, re-initiation by dose titration should be considered (see above).

When switching treatment from another dopamine agonist to ropinirole, the marketing authorisation holder’s guidance on discontinuation should be followed before initiating ropinirole.

When ropinirole is administered as adjunct therapy to levodopa, it may be possible to reduce gradually the levodopa dose, depending on the clinical response. In clinical trials, the levodopa dose was reduced gradually by approximately 30% in patients receiving ropinirole concurrently. In patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease receiving ropinirole in combination with levodopa, dyskinesias can occur during the initial titration of ropinirole. In clinical trials it was shown that a reduction of the levodopa dose may ameliorate dyskinesia.

As with other dopamine agonists, it is necessary to discontinue ropinirole treatment gradually by reducing the daily dose over the period of one week.

Elderly

The clearance of ropinirole is decreased by approximately 15% in patients aged 65 years or above. Although a dose adjustment is not required, ropinirole dose should be individually titrated, with careful monitoring of tolerability, to the optimal clinical response. In patients aged 75 years and above, slower titration during treatment initiation may be considered.

Dosage considerations

It may be taken with or without food.

Active ingredient

Ropinirole

Ropinirole is a non-ergoline D2/D3 dopamine agonist which stimulates striatal dopamine receptors. Ropinirole alleviates the dopamine deficiency which characterises Parkinson’s disease by stimulating striatal dopamine receptors.

Read more about Ropinirole

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