Comorbid functional shoulder pain and zolpidem dependence treated with pramipexole

Abstract

Pramipexole is a dopamine agonist with higher affinity for D3 receptors. Treatment with pramipexole in clinical conditions such as restless legs syndrome, fibromyalgia, and parkinsonism has been found to significantly improve measures of pain and sleep along with the other symptoms. There is no research data available that explores the usefulness of pramipexole in somatoform/functional pain syndromes. We report a case of a 65-year-old male with bilateral functional shoulder pain associated with insomnia and zolpidem dependence effectively treated with pramipexole.

Keywords

• Functional pain
• insomnia
• pramipexole
• zolpidem dependence