Medications for parkinsonism provoke pathological behavior
Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, working under the leadership of Daniel Weintraub, examined about 3,000 people undergoing treatment for Parkinsonism in the United States and Canada, and found that those patients who took drugs based on dopamine receptor agonists were more likely to have a so-called impulse control disorder (impuls control disorders) – a condition in which people cannot resist impulses and temptations to perform an action that can harm themselves or other people, expressed in gambling addiction, pathological shopping, uncontrolled eating and obsessive sexuality.
Similar behavioral disorders in patients with Parkinsonism were known even before the work of the Weintraub group: according to available data, from 1.7 to 6.1% of such patients suffered from gambling addiction, 2-4% – pathological sexuality and 0.4-3% of patients with Parkinsonism had a pathological passion for shopping.
Of the 3,090 patients with Parkinsonism examined by Weintraub's colleagues, 13.6% suffered from a disorder over motives: 5% had gambling addiction, 3.5% had impulsive sexuality, 5.7% had compulsive shopping, 4.3% had uncontrolled eating behavior. 3.9% of patients had two or more simultaneous addictions. Similar behavioral disorders were significantly more often observed in patients taking drugs of the dopamine receptor agonist group, compared with patients who were not treated with these drugs (17.1% vs. 6.9%).
Factors such as taking levodopa (another medication for Parkinson's disease), living in the United States, young age, lack of family, smoking, as well as gambling addiction in one of the ancestors were associated with the disorder of impulse control.
The authors of the work Impulse Control Disorders in Parkinson's Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study of 3090 Patients, published in the May issue of the journal Arcives of Neurology, conclude that the treatment of Parkinsonism with drugs based on dopamine receptor agonists is associated with a 2.5-3.5-fold increase in the risk of behavioral disorders and the occurrence of various addictions. The revealed relationship of behavioral disorders with other demographic and clinical factors suggests a more complex etiology of impulsive behavior disorders, which requires further research.
Due to the fact that dopamine receptor agonists are widely used for the treatment of many other diseases, including fibromyalgia and restless legs syndrome (manifested by unpleasant sensations in the lower extremities and their excessive motor activity mainly at rest), the authors emphasize the need for large-scale epidemiological studies among patients with other diseases receiving drugs of this group, for to identify a possible relationship between therapy with dopamine receptor agonists and the appearance of behavioral disorders.
Daria Chervyakova
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru According to ScienceDaily: Parkinson's Disease Treatments Associated With Compulsive Behaviors
14.05.2010