Is there anything at all I should be concerned about while taking Ritalin with my MC? Has anyone had any experience with this? I did a search on the forum and the word didn't come up at all. My psychiatrist prescribed it for my extreme tiredness and memory loss. Low dose to start. So far just a little noticeable. It's been two weeks since beginning it. I'm keeping hopeful.
Ritalin is often prescribed for the excessive daytime sleepiness seen in myotonic muscular dystrophy. I think the dose in studies was about 20 mg/day and no side effects were noted.
That's wonderful to hear, Jan. Thank you. My Doc asked me to ask my neurologist but I thought I would ask here first. My Dr has seen so few cases of MC. My dose is only 5mg twice a day. So far it's been a small improvement. I'm happy to know there's a chance he can increase dose.
I looked up a couple of studies for you that mention Ritalin or Modafinil and Myotonic Dystrophy. If it worsened myotonia then they wouldn't use it for MMD. This is from a December 2011 summary of a congress on MMD published in a Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy newsletter in Quebec:
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Ritalin as treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness in the myotonic dystrophy type 1.
The team of the Dr J Puymirat showed the effectiveness of 20 mg / day of Ritalin as treatment of sleepiness. Medicament was well tolerated without major side effects.
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Oh, Jan...I can't thank you enough! This info is wonderful! I am going to print it out and bring to my next appt with my Doctor. Actually print it out for all of my Docs. I'm very excited about this! I would be absolutely lost without this forum! You are so appreciated. And I surly appreciate all of our friends here as well. (((((HUGS))))))