Parkinson's Drugs Linked to Compulsive Behaviors

Heavy gambling, hypersexuality reported in rare cases

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

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WEDNESDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- New research provides more evidence that some Parkinson's drugs have rare and unusual side effects: They seem to make patients oversexed and turn them into compulsive gamblers.

The behaviors appear in only a small percentage of Parkinson's patients, but they're still more common than in ordinary people, a new study suggests. And the side effects can be serious: 10 people who developed a gambling compulsion after going on drugs such as levodopa lost an average of $150,000 each.

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The compulsive behavior in patients who take the drugs "is treatable and reversible, but people need to be aware of it," said study co-author Dr. Valerie Voon, a research fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Researchers have known about links between Parkinson's drugs and compulsive behavior since the 1970s when doctors noticed that some patients were "hypersexual," Voon said. In 2005, a study reported on 11 Parkinson's patients who became compulsive gamblers after taking drugs to treat the disease; eight stopped the behavior after going off the medications.

In the new study, Voon and her colleagues surveyed 296 Parkinson's disease patients, many of whom were in their 60s and had developed the illness in their 50s.

The findings were to be presented Wednesday at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in San Diego.

The researchers found that 10 patients -- 3.4 percent -- showed signs of compulsive gambling, about double the percentage seen in the general population. Patients preferred slot machines, Voon said. The devices don't "require as much cognitive process, and there's much more immediate gain as opposed to playing poker or waiting for the lotto to come through," she explained.

The researchers also found signs of oversexed behavior -- including excessive use of Internet pornography and visits to prostitutes -- in seven patients and compulsive shopping in two.

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