Habitual, compulsive gambling with losses up to $200,000 within six months by those who previously never or only occasionally gambled recreationally has been tied to Parkinson’s disease drugs called dopamine agonists.
“This is a striking effect,” says J. Eric Ahlskog, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist who treated most of the patients in the series. “Pathological gambling induced by a drug is really quite unusual.”
The good news is that excessive gambling behavior only occurs in a small number of patients given the drugs, and it can be stopped as suddenly as it came on. “It’s a very rare side effect and reversible if you get off the drug, but you have to make the association,” says Dr. Ahlskog.
1 comment:
I would imagine that this is a symptom of larger side effects...
For it to cause that addiction to gambling it must be affecting your mental processes for decision making which should have further reaching implications besides gambling.
Those people who are not having the problem in relation to a gambling addiction may very well experiencing this effect in other aspects of their lives!
I hope they continue with their research on this.
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