Ropinirole for ADHD

Ropinirole is a non-ergot dopamine agonist.
Ropinirole is a selective D2 agonist.

Ropinirole is commonly used as a Parkinson’s disease medication.

A small prospective study tested ropinirole for ADHD in 9 boys aged 8 to 13 years.¹
In 33% of the subjects (2 out of 6), there was a very significant improvement in concentration.
In 84% of subjects (5 of 6), ropinirole improved impulsivity and the number of errors on the CPT between low to significant. In 50% of subjects (3 of 6), the improvement in the number of errors was at least 40% of the baseline number of errors without medication. In terms of impulsivity, ropinirole was found to be on par with MPH.

The number of subjects in this study is far too small to draw reliable conclusions. However, the results indicate that ropinirole could be a helpful tool to improve concentration and impulsivity in individual sufferers. In particular, in MPH and AMP nonresponders, ropinirole could be considered for an individual remedy trial. An individual case report of a 6-year-old boy with ADHD and restless legs who was an MPH nonresponder showed a good effect of ropinirole on ADHD and RLS.²

Ropinirole showed severe daytime sleepiness as a side effect, which was even more severe at 2 mg/day (3 of 3 subjects) than at 1 mg/day (4 of 6 subjects).
This may indicate that ropinirole may be helpful for sleep problems in ADHD.