Dice-Rolling Tremor
A number of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease suddenly developed a serious gambling addiction — and researchers believe the compulsion is linked to the medicine they were taking.
Retired government intelligence worker Joe Neglia told The Associated Press he lost thousands of dollars playing the slots before he stumbled across an internet report linking a popular Parkinson’s drug he used with compulsive gambling.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, this must be it,’” he told the AP. Three days after stopping the drug, Mirapex, “all desire to gamble just went away completely. I felt like I had my brain back.” He could not say the same for his money.
Let SPM interject here for a moment. We’re talking about thousands of functional Parkinsonian patients across the country, right? Most of whom are a) retired, b) bored, and c) have expendable dough. Not to be glib, but in Vegas the slots are to old people like the strip clubs are to bachelor parties. Isn’t it possible that these individuals had a propensity towards gambling prior to starting Mirapex? And the improvement in function that resulted from the drug facilitated them to act on their desires? To blame the #1 prescribed dopamine agonist for a few cases of elderly slot-aholoics seems a bit extreme.
A Mayo Clinic study published in July’s Archives of Neurology describes 11 other Parkinson’s patients who developed the unusual problem while taking Mirapex or similar drugs between 2002 and 2004. Doctors have since identified 14 additional Mayo patients with the problem, lead author Dr. M. Leann Dodd, a Mayo psychiatrist, told the wire service.
“It’s certainly enough for us to be cautious as we are using it,” Dodd said.Neglia, 54, now living in Millersville, Md., was not treated at Mayo or involved in the study. He is one of several patients suing manufacturer Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., accusing the company of failing to adequately warn patients about the potential side effects. Katherine King O’Connor, a spokeswoman for the Ridgefield, Conn.-based Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, said there’s no scientific evidence that Mirapex causes the problem. Still, the company revised Mirapex’s package insert earlier this year to include compulsive behavior among potential side effects after receiving “rare” reports all after the drug was approved for U.S. use in 1997, O’Connor said.
Mirapex, or pramipexole, reduces tremors and the slow, stiff movements that are a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. It belongs to a class of drugs that mimic the effects of dopamine, a brain chemical that controls movement and is deficient in Parkinson’s disease.
