Vivienne47
Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2022
- Messages
- 28
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 08/2022
- Country
- UK
- State
- KE
- City
- Crockham Hill
I was diagnosed with suspected ALS a few months ago and have been on Riluzole since September when the diagnosis was confirmed. The fear of the disease seriously disrupted my otherwise good sleep patterns. My GP prescribed Zopiclone and advised use with cation as it can cause unsteadiness. I took it for several weeks at 3.75 mg/ night without incident and slept well and was able to get up in the night to visit the loo without stumbling. After 6 weeks or so my husband said I was becoming vague and my personality was affected. I noticed a cloud of depression over my normal indomitable positive outlook. Then my ‘ALS leg’, the only bit of me so far affected, started to feel weak and jelly-like. My pilates/neuromuscular expert measured my muscle strength in my ALS leg and observed no change from before, so the feeling of weakness didn’t correlate with actual loss of muscle strength.
Riluzole downregulates the pathway of the exitatory glutamate neurotransmitter in the CNS and Zopiclone upregulates the pathway of inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. I can’t find any published reports on possible mechanistic interaction of Riluzole and Zopiclone, but it seems possible that Riluzole might exacerbate the effect of Zopiclone. I just know I feel 100 x better emotionally since I stopped Zopiclone 2 days ago, and my ALS leg is working much better. My sleep is not too bad now either. It seems the effects crept up on me and were cumulative over a few weeks. I don’t intend taking Zopiclone again.
I wonder if anyone else has observed this when taking both Riluzole and Zopiclone?
Vivienne
Riluzole downregulates the pathway of the exitatory glutamate neurotransmitter in the CNS and Zopiclone upregulates the pathway of inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. I can’t find any published reports on possible mechanistic interaction of Riluzole and Zopiclone, but it seems possible that Riluzole might exacerbate the effect of Zopiclone. I just know I feel 100 x better emotionally since I stopped Zopiclone 2 days ago, and my ALS leg is working much better. My sleep is not too bad now either. It seems the effects crept up on me and were cumulative over a few weeks. I don’t intend taking Zopiclone again.
I wonder if anyone else has observed this when taking both Riluzole and Zopiclone?
Vivienne