Is a loved one suddenly having problems with compulsive gambling? If the person is being treated for Parkinson's disease, the cause may lie in his medication.Researchers are looking into the connection between compulsive behavior and a specific dopamine agonist, pramipexole, which is used to treat Parkinson's.
Dopamine is a chemical naturally produced by the human body. It plays an important role in the brain's control of movement. It is linked with addictive behaviors and pleasurable experiences such as drugs, sex and food. A shortage of it, however, causes Parkinson's disease. This means that treating the disease with dopamine can possibly cause the patient to seek addictive behaviors such as gambling, hyper sexuality and overeating.
Despite the strong link between the two, there's still no firm evidence to support the theory. In the study they conducted among 529 people taking pramipexole, only 1.5% developed gambling behaviors. (cnn.com)
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