I have been suffering from restless legs for a year and a half. This makes it difficult for me to fall asleep and I lie awake at night. The doctor prescribed me pramipexole, but when I read about all the side effects, I decided not to take that shit. Isn’t there something else? According to my daughter, a washcloth with soap in bed also helps.
56 year old man
All restless leg remedies have side effects. They influence the impulse transmission in the nervous system in different ways. These include morphine-like painkillers, sleeping pills and tranquilizers, medicines for epilepsy and medicines for Parkinson’s disease, including pramipexole. None of these are ‘candy’ and chances are you will feel some of it. Nausea is especially common. But it does not mean that you will get all the side effects listed in the leaflet. Ultimately, what matters is whether the effect is so worth it that you are willing to pay for the side effects. You will only find out by trying it.
Placebo
The guidelines for general practitioners state that pramipexole is one of the drugs of first choice. Of the people who take it, the majority (60 percent) experience more than 50 percent improvement in complaints. But… the latter is also the case in 40 percent of people who receive a placebo (or fake pill). So there is a good chance – 40 percent – that the placebo washcloth-with-soap also works.
