I know you are not a physician but we want to hear from patients with the same experience Or have you interviewed patients who reduced their medications  successfully to recovery. We want to learn from these experiences.

I post e mails from people here on the Parkinsons Recovery Blog who report patients who reduced their medications using one approach or another.  Check in with the blog periodically to get their stories.

I also document cases in Pioneers of Recovery. Many I have interviewed over the years have been successful in reducing their medications in close collaboration with their doctor.

People use different approaches to reduce their medications. The most important rule is to do this slowly working with your doctor.  As you point out, there are many excellent alternatives which can be considered. Some will succeed for you and others will not.

As you correctly point out, I am certainly not qualified to say one way or another whether this particular drug therapy would be a good choice for you. I would proceed just as you are – ask around – get some opinions – then  use your own intuition to decide whether taking this drug would be a smart decision for you or not.

Drugs have literally saved people’s lives, so we must all be thankful that they exist. The downside to taking any prescription drug is that there are always side effects. That is why the FDA is involved.

You may well achieve your goal (which in your case is to reduce the medications you are currently taking) but other unwanted side effects may emerge (or not). You never know since every one’s reactions to drugs differs.

As with any drug the list of possible side effects for the drug you are considering is extensive. Possibilities that have been reported for the drug you are considering include disturbed sleep, unsettling dreams, fatigue, spasms, pain, headache, diarrhea and an increase of liver enzymes. If you decide to pursue this as a therapy you may experience none of these possible side effects. Or, you may experience several of them.

You can always evaluate whether any therapy is a good idea or not for you through muscle testing and checking in with your own intuitive sense of what is the right decision to make.

You actually know the answer to your own question. When you sort out how the option feels, you will know the right decision to make.

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery