Side effects of ropinirole in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease

Results achieved in treating the Parkinson's disease (PD) by the dopamine receptor agonist, ropinirole, have been hampered by its side effects. According to the MEDLINE, the most common side effects of ropinirole are extreme sleepiness and/or sudden sleep attacks, nausea, dyspepsia, vertigo, orthostatic hypotension and leg oedema.

The prospective research included PD patients who were administered non-ergoline dopamine agonist, ropinirole, over this period of time. The control group of patients were treated with levodopa.

The research included 50 patients: 31 women and 19 men, of the mean age of 61.4 +/- 4.3 years. One patient reported sleepiness and one of them sudden sleep attacks. Nausea was experienced by three patients, and vertigo by two. Depression, orthostatic hypotension, leg oedema, dyspepsia, dry cough and hypersalivation were registered in particular cases. The control group of PD patients, treated with levodopa, comprised 52 patients, 33 women and 19 men of the mean age of 63.2 +/- 4.1 years. In the control group, nausea was registered in two patients.

The non-ergoline dopamine agonist, ropinirole, most commonly causes nausea and sleepiness, less commonly uncontrollable sleep attacks, vertigo, dyspepsia, orthostatic hypotension, leg oedema. Dry cough and hypersalivation are recorded sporadically (Tab. 1, Ref. 22).