Effectiveness and tolerability of rotigotine transdermal patch for the treatment of restless legs syndrome in a routine clinical practice setting in Germany.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess effectiveness and tolerability of rotigotine in patients with moderate to severe idiopathic restless legs syndrome (RLS) under daily practice conditions in Germany.
METHODS: In this 3-month noninterventional study, effectiveness was assessed using RLS-6 (primary variables were symptom severity when falling asleep [item 2] and during the night [item 3]). Data were collected at baseline and at the end of treatment. Safety assessments included adverse events (AEs).
RESULTS: Six hundred and eighty-four patients were treated with rotigotine and 418 (61%) completed the study. The full analysis set (FAS) comprised 564 patients (106 de novo; 458 pretreated [454 had complete rotigotine dosing data]). Mean rotigotine dose of longest duration was 2.4±1.4 mg/24 h. Rotigotine improved all RLS-6 items (mean change from baseline [item 2], -2.4±3.6; [item 3], -2.7±3.4), with the most pronounced improvement observed in daytime symptoms while at rest (item 4, -2.9±3.2). AEs were typical of dopaminergic treatment and transdermal administration. De novo patients generally started rotigotine on 1 mg/24 h (85% [90/106]) and pretreated patients on 1 (50% [227/454]) or 2 mg/24 h (40% [183/454]). Most patients who were pretreated with levodopa (57%), pramipexole (84%), or ropinirole (78%) monotherapy discontinued these medications on initiation of rotigotine.
CONCLUSIONS: Rotigotine was effective and well-tolerated when used in routine clinical practice.