Parkinsons drugs encourage gambling!

I just got some shocking news from a friend with Parkinson's Disease. About six months ago he inexplicably started an online gambling habit, and over the next four months he lost all his money, his fiancé in the foreign country he'd moved to (to be with her), everything. Penniless, he returned to his home country where his doctor casually informed my friend that the drugs the doc put him on can encourage gambling impulses in some people. My friend went off the drugs and immediately lost the desire to gamble compulsively. A Google search for "Parkinsons drug gambling" shows that this problem is widespread, with many patients losing everything once they started getting medicated.

This is just insult to injury. Knowing you have a disease where you can see your body failing over time is painful enough, but then to lose your money, and maybe your job and your family -- that's just crushing.

I'd never heard of the drug/gambling connection before, and a search of this forum shows that it's never been discussed before, so I'm posting now to bring some more awareness to this issue. I also just put a link about it on the bottom of every page of my site, Vegas Click.

Speaking of my site, my friend's story hit a little close to home. Like the Wizard, I make much of my income from ads for online gambling, and then I hear from a friend how his online gambling habit threw his life into a tailspin. Of course I've always supported gambling as valid recreation when done responsibly, but a story like this does give one pause, for sure.

Does the drug cause a person to gamble or cause the person to gamble unwisely?

Many antidepressants have sexual side effects.

This is certainly nothing new. Certain prescription drugs
have impulsive behavior as a side effect. It can manifest
as gambling, or excessive sex, or hand washing, or even
criminal behavior, like shop lifting.

ABC's Private Practice dealt with that very subject on last Thursday's airing. A married school teacher became promiscuous after she was given drugs for Parkinson's.

I'm sure many of the old geezers seen in casinos are not taking drugs for Parkinsons.
Its already been noted the high proportion of smokers and general risk takers who gamble.
Parkinsons or antidepressants would be a small factor.

the tv show las vegas (nbc 2003-2008) had an episode about a drug that caused people to gamble.
Its nothing new.

Okay, fine, all of you were already familiar with the issue. You get a cookie. But I wasn't, and my friend certainly wasn't -- and as a result his life was turned upside-down.

Michael -

Don't let them bother you. You did a good thing by mentioning it. I too was unaware.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Okay, fine, all of you were already familiar with the issue. You get a cookie. But I wasn't, and my friend certainly wasn't -- and as a result his life was turned upside-down.

I was unfamiliar with the drug. Had I seen it on a TV series, I'd have been very skeptical.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

I wasn't, and my friend certainly wasn't -- and as a result his life was turned upside-down.

I think the drug companies have known of this danger for some time... so there is a question of who should have been notifying your friend. Was this recent?

I was not aware of this at all, and thank you for brining it to my attention.

While I try to encourage gambling in moderation all over my Odds site, I will seriously consider adding a link in my footer for seeking help for compulsive gambling. I see you link to CasinoMeister's page on that, which I think serves as a good model for how I would do it.

Throwing up a link to GA not only seems to be the easy way out, but I also can't endorse them, because of their deist beliefs. The National Council on Problem Gambling, whose phone number you indicate, seems a good alternative for help beyond any advice I could provide.

If you listen carefully to the warnings in some
of the drug commercials on TV, you sometimes
hear impulsive behavior as a side effect. Most
people don't make the connection to gambling
and sex and shop lifting, however. I think if you
have tendencies towards something, like binge
eating, the drugs lower your ability to deal with
it.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

I just got some shocking news from a friend with Parkinson's Disease. About six months ago he inexplicably started an online gambling habit, and over the next four months he lost all his money, his fiancé in the foreign country he'd moved to (to be with her), everything. Penniless, he returned to his home country where his doctor casually informed my friend that the drugs the doc put him on can encourage gambling impulses in some people.

You can get immune to headlines like: Man Says Parkinson's Drug Made Him Addicted to Gambling and Gay Sex . It is sometimes difficult to imagine a real person with this disease. Thank you for the post, since it may save someone's life.

I recall hearing that the drug they were pushing on TV commercials a couple of years ago, for restless leg syndrome, had the same effect on some people. I read one story where one woman's compulsion manifested itself in the form of gardening, where she'd be out in the yard in the middle of the night, planting flowers.

I'm not sure if the drugs actually *create* the compulsion, tho, or just cause it to surface. Think about the movie "Days of Wine and Roses" and how the wife became an alcoholic so quickly; apparently the compulsive tendency was always there, waiting for the right thing to trigger it.

Quote: tsmith

I'm not sure if the drugs actually *create* the compulsion, tho, or just cause it to surface

From my understanding, the drugs don't create anything,
they just lower the barriers for compulsions that already
exist. Over eating is a biggie, lots of people balloon up
because they feel compelled to eat all the time.

I knew somebody years ago who had to take a drug to
survive, and it made hi shoplift. He got caught so many
times he was under house arrest with an ankle bracelet
and he STILL went out and shoplifted.

Quote:

Who tells people about these potential side effects?

at the risk of stating the obvious, is it indicated on the data sheet that comes with the drugs? You know... The stuff nobody reads?

Quote: DJTeddyBear

at the risk of stating the obvious, is it indicated on the data sheet that comes with the drugs? You know... The stuff nobody reads?

I assumed it was always on the label too, but I checked and the answer surprised me! The fact is the disclamers often *don't* contain the proper warnings. For example: (from various news articles)

Quote:

But it wasn't until 2005 - eight years after its introduction - that information about compulsive behavior was finally added to the Mirapex label.

Quote:

This year, after a TV special highlighted possible dangers, Boehringer Ingelheim [finally] started putting a warning in the medicine's package that side effects could include "pathological gambling."...The suit, now in federal court here, claims that even though the corporations were aware of research linking Permax and compulsive gambling, they failed to warn Barbara and others...."We're not asking that they take the drug off the market," Barbara says. "It's a good drug. But people like me need to know to stop taking the medication. If there had been a warning on that bottle a year ago, it would have made a huge difference for me and my family."

Quote:

The company, which is facing numerous similar suits around the country, denies there is scientific evidence proving the link to gambling.

Wow.

I was actually going in the other direction - that it might already be on the label, but doesn't get read.