Inbrija - my findings and tips for use
I have moderate stage PD (13 years of symptoms , diagnosed 9 years ago, moderate stage for 1 year). This means I have on/off fluctuations. As I have it at a relatively early age, on/off episodes can be particularly intrusive when going out with my wife and 2 young girls.
For some reason co-careldopa which works well , takes over an hour to start working. Madopar dispersible takes 40 minutes and gives me a poor quality “on”. With a 3 year old , even 40 minutes seems like an eternity!
So I tried Inbrija. I wasted a few doses before I found a reliable way of getting it to work for me.
First I tried, sucking on the inhaler quickly. I heard a whirring sound and then uncontrollably coughed it all out in a big white cloud! Fail
Then I tried sucking slowly. There was still a faint whirring sound. I did not cough. But sometimes it was working and sometimes it did absolutely nothing. Fail again
In disappointment, I went through every fine detail of the instructions and videos again and realised I had missed one detail.
The instructions say to completely empty your lungs before sucking on the inhaler. This was the key for me. When you empty your lungs, your brain is totally focused on wanting the lungs filled with air again. So I sucked on the inhaler quickly and normally no longer cough. But if I do cough the reaction is so delayed that nothing comes back out.
When I say sucking on the inhaler, what I mean by that is I purse my lips around the inhaler as if I was going to drink from a straw and then breath in entirely from the mouth.
Now I am getting consistent results, starting to kick in as soon as 8 minutes, fully on by 15 minutes. For me it gives about 90 minutes of good coverage.
This has been a game changer for me.
Just thought I would post in case this is of value to others!