Link between Parkinson's disease medication and gambling

CrossCurrents

With all the work being done on the neurological ties between medications and pathological gambling, a new link has recently been discovered between two areas that were previously thought unrelated – dopamine agonists and excessive gambling.

A study published in a summer 2003 issue of Neurology discovered that pathological gambling may be a possible side-effect of the agonists, medications often taken for Parkinson’s disease.

Over the course of one year, researchers at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Research Centre in Phoenix, Arizona, studied data of almost 2,000 people with Parkinson’s disease who were on various agonist medications: 529 on Mirapex (pramipexole), 331 on Permax (pergolide mesylate) and 42 on Requip (ropinirole hydrochloride). Nine individuals were diagnosed with a pathological gambling problem and had reportedly been taking Mirapex or Permax anywhere from six months to five years before their gambling problems emerged. None of the nine were problem gamblers before taking the medications.

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