- A type of drug prescribed for Parkinson's disease can
cause some patients to become compulsive gamblers or sex-addicts, it has
been revealed.
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- Researchers reported on 11 patients who acquired an irrepressible
urge to gamble after taking the drugs.
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- Some suffered losses of up to £115,000 within six
months. Six patients also developed other behavioural problems, including
compulsive eating, increased alcohol consumption, and an insatiable appetite
for sex.
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- A number became fixated on pornography, pestered their
partners for sex, or had affairs.
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- Doctors in the United States traced the problems to dopamine
agonists, drugs that mimic the effect of the brain chemical dopamine, and
identified one particular drug most likely to trigger compulsive gambling,
pramipexole.
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- Parkinson's patients have reduced levels of dopamine,
a chemical that relays messages between brain cells. It is this which causes
the classic symptoms of muscle rigidity and tremor.
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- But dopamine is also known to play a role in helping
the brain to recognise and seek sources of pleasure - the basis of addiction.
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- The patients involved had, at most, only occasionally
gambled for fun in the past, but routine clinic visits revealed that their
personalities went through a dramatic change after going on to the drugs.
The cases were reported in the journal Archives of Neurology.
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- Dr Eric Ahlskog, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,
who treated most of the patients, said: "This is a striking effect.
Pathological gambling induced by a drug is really quite unusual.
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- "It's a very rare side effect and reversible if
you get off the drug, but you have to make the association."
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- ©2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd
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- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/t
hehealthnews.html?in_article_id=355467&in_page_id=1797
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