The Meds Made Me Do It! Drug Side Effects Include Gambling, Risky Sex

submit to reddit

Here’s some news that could put an interesting twist in the gambling addiction/genetics debate (not to mention supply new reasons to sue drug companies): ABC News reports that several of the drugs prescribed for Parkinson’s disease and restless legs syndrome can cause a range of dangerous behavioral side effects including increased drinking, drug use, risky sex, and gambling.

The drugs, which include Mirapex and Requip, are dopamine agonists, which mimic dopamine in the brain to boost the movement and coordination centers—and also stimulate the pleasure response by reinforcing certain behaviors. Unwitting patients who’ve taken the drugs have wound up with costly gambling habits, DUI arrests, and compulsive eating disorders, as well as even stranger effects—one man reportedly plays basketball for up to 36 hours at a time, while another compulsively fishes.

Given that more than 10 million prescriptions have been written for Mirapex alone, it’s not unlikely that we’ll see some serious fallout, be it motorists killed by a drunk driver on the drug, or an STD spike as a result of risky sexual practices (which are already on the rise among seniors, the demographic most likely to be taking meds for Parkinson’s and RLS).

As such, it’s worth it to start asking to what degree patients should be held legally responsible for their actions while taking the drug—and, perhaps even more importantly for lawyers, whether the drug companies can be held at all responsible for all that irresponsible boozing and sex.

July 16th, 2008 Tags: ,
by Melissa Lafsky in Health Care, Science in the Courtroom | 114 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

114 Responses to “The Meds Made Me Do It! Drug Side Effects Include Gambling, Risky Sex”

  1. 1.   dan umanoff, m.d. Says:

    The dopamine agonist phenomena discussed in your article are very important.
    The debate on whether addictions are caused by biological mechanisms and in particular genetic ones versus non-biological causes is long over though the other side of this issue hasn’t surrendered yet because they are making hundreds of billions of dollars off the psychobabble/moral/environmental paradigm. See my review paper on the science behind this theory war and the debate at: http://www.nvo.com/hypoism/hypoismhypothesis/ Another article discusses the evolutionary psychology and the brain mechanism given to us by evolution: http://www.nvo.com/hypoism/thehypoismaddictionhypothesis/ My 1996 book, Hypoic’s Handbook, goes through the entire paradigm debate including the addiction prevention, recovery, and public policy implications.
    The addictions seen in the small group of Mirapex and Requip users is 100% in favor of the biological (and genetic) causation of addictions. Discontinuation and reuse studies show under these conditions the addictions disappear and reappear in these people. There’s no question this is a biological mechanism and real, not to be ignored, poo-poo’d or disrespected. The science of this needs to be worked out, but my guess is that as in addictions in general, there are certain people with certain particular genetic alleles of the reward system regulatory mechanism that get addictions under the biological influence of these dopamine agonists. A better understanding of this phenomenon will add insight into the causation of addictions and more evidence of the purely biological mechanism of addiction causation.
    The main implications of all this is that the entire paradigm of addiction causation and understanding needs to be changed, dumping the current environmental/psychobabble paradigm (the hijacked brain hypothesis), so we can then move forward in ending the current addiction epidemic maintained by this paradigm and their damaging public policies, such as the drug war and addict discrimination.
    My web site http://www.nvo.com/hypoism/door/ has much important information on all aspects of this mess.

  2. 2.   qvwyramjfpp Says:

    PPGuMQ jvpcpooqlxgl, [url=http://ebygwgegvywe.com/]ebygwgegvywe[/url], [link=http://jjisvplafwwm.com/]jjisvplafwwm[/link], http://gksmcprwkbsz.com/

  3. 3.   jonn1 Says:
  4. 4.   xdpkrmy Says:

    pH6K27 usulregtevgx, [url=http://hffqnscubevc.com/]hffqnscubevc[/url], [link=http://ixvkpnxienry.com/]ixvkpnxienry[/link], http://xplhdukadhcg.com/

  5. 5.   jonn3 Says:
  6. 6.   rmmomyg Says:

    Y5puBo zfhklgmgnbpc, [url=http://dwlfalclprfp.com/]dwlfalclprfp[/url], [link=http://vyzmeqittqeu.com/]vyzmeqittqeu[/link], http://demuvpjsinyo.com/

  7. 7.   Abdale Says:

    [url="http://www.arkhamgames.com/viagra.html"]viagra pills[/url] purchase viagra http://www.arkhamgames.com/viagra.html 826

  8. 8.   lindsay lohan breasts Says:

    ontario ministry of education, megan fox pics, 4827, ashley tisdale sex, %-)), holly madison pictorial, >:-))), katy perry sexy, gbg, lindsay lohan breasts, rnmi,

  9. 9.   Nacktarn Says:

    viagra pills [url="http://www.arkhamgames.com/viagra.html"]generic viagra[/url] http://www.arkhamgames.com/viagra.html bqyljz

  10. 10.   gallery of paris hilton Says:
  11. 11.   vanessa anne hudgens images Says:
  12. 12.   paris hilton in bed Says:
  13. 13.   tila tequila Says:
  14. 14.   jessica biel sex Says:
  15. 15.   megan fox porn Says:
  16. 16.   angelina jolie Says:
  17. 17.   pamela anderson Says:
  18. 18.   lindsay lohan nude Says:
  19. 19.   megan fox naked Says:
  20. 20.   kim kardashian nude pics Says:
  21. 21.   jessica biel sex scene Says:
  22. 22.   kim kardashian naked Says:
  23. 23.   nude megan fox Says:
  24. 24.   miley cyrus pics Says:
  25. 25.   megan fox naked Says:

    accountability in education, megan fox fhm, fop, megan fox fhm, 666, lindsay lohan sex tape, spb, free kim kardashian sex tape, ffcdu, miley cyrus nude, 10395,

  26. 26.   jessica alba butt Says:
  27. 27.   hot lindsay lohan pics Says:
  28. 28.   megan fox gallery Says:
  29. 29.   megan fox pics Says:
  30. 30.   free kim kardashian sex tape Says:
  31. 31.   tila tequila nude Says:
  32. 32.   megan fox naked Says:
  33. 33.   lucy pinder Says:
  34. 34.   megan fox wallpaper Says:
  35. 35.   megan fox wallpaper Says:
  36. 36.   megan fox fhm Says:
  37. 37.   jessica simpson nude Says:
  38. 38.   kim kardashian naked Says:
  39. 39.   hot lindsay lohan pics Says:
  40. 40.   angelina jolie naked Says:
  41. 41.   angelina jolie naked Says:
  42. 42.   holly madison photos Says:
  43. 43.   megan fox gallery Says:
  44. 44.   miley cyrus nude pics Says:
  45. 45.   jessica alba exposed Says:
  46. 46.   emma watson nude Says:

    continuing education programs, kim kardashian ray j, mvpep, holly madison photos, =-[[, megan fox fhm, kfdx, lucy pinder, 1573, miley cyrus naked, 995, jessica biel sex scene, =-]], megan fox gallery, >:-OOO, lindsay lohan breasts, =DDD,

  47. 47.   kim kardashian nude pics Says:
  48. 48.   emma watson sex Says:
  49. 49.   kim kardashian nude pics Says:

    education needed to be a fbi agent, jessica biel sex scene, vcr, miley cyrus pics, >:-), miley cyrus pics, 2922, lindsay lohan sex tape, 101, carmen electra naked, emztlp, jessica alba exposed, mzem, megan fox wallpaper, 612,

  50. 50.   kelis sextape Says:
  51. 51.   free kim kardashian sex tape Says:
  52. 52.   megan fox pictures Says:
  53. 53.   paris hilton sex Says:
  54. 54.   nude megan fox Says:
  55. 55.   free kim kardashian sex tape Says:
  56. 56.   lindsay lohan sex tape Says:
  57. 57.   lindsay lohan breasts Says:
  58. 58.   miley cyrus naked Says:
  59. 59.   miley cyrus pics Says:
  60. 60.   megan fox nude Says:
  61. 61.   glchbv Says:

    mbhpzO dqjwusmhqdsl, [url=http://bsruzhqcrlix.com/]bsruzhqcrlix[/url], [link=http://snifnecgpvan.com/]snifnecgpvan[/link], http://awtyrtvmiklu.com/

  62. 62.   miley cyrus pics Says:
  63. 63.   megan fox fhm Says:
  64. 64.   megan fox nude Says:
  65. 65.   paris hilton video Says:
  66. 66.   megan fox nude pics Says:
  67. 67.   holly madison pictorial Says:

    duxbury high school character education, megan fox fhm, %-]], megan fox nude pics, 694254, megan fox pics, >:[[[, paris hilton video, ixj, megan fox pictures, >:[, megan fox gallery, 070, kim kardashian nude pics, 72707, kim kardashian nude pics, bcnav,

  68. 68.   Guyxfzys Says:

    comment6, kylix ringtone maker 2.1 portable, zcpdfr,

  69. 69.   Qudkwyrn Says:

    interesting opinion, thanks, dating vintage canniong jars, vvj, dating scammer zulfiya yakovleva, 7396, ekaterina kazmerchuk dating, 623081, dating scammer rositsa shahova, 148, dating scammer olga sovin, olils, jennifer zelenik dating sites, xde, dating scammer ksusha somova, 097816, keren happuch dating photo or profile, zfn, joe nammo online dating, 019321, m0868 login dating, :-OO, dating a unovac thermos, 81239, punk dating aberdeen wa ivel 29, 0115, kurt von eckroth dating, xwxg, dating scammer rubby addae, 71275, funtimers over 40 singles las vegas, 155, 21cfr pollen raw material expiry dating, %]]], dating scammer louie lehne, aars, royal copenhagen fajance dating, 8-((, catherine bacj h dating, =P, online dating saypol jackson wy, coazgl,

  70. 70.   Gtwyywwc Says:

    just brilliant, wikipedia singles que ironia jennifer lopez, =-]]], digital dating the maltshop of, %]], wikipedia singles que ironia jenifer lopez, 8], ken dabek dating, nzu, workamping singles, >:-[, confidential christain singles, csrq, adventist dating heatherjen, qwymvo, audrey jammerman dating, 2098, dating scammer julia zherdev, yok, dating scammer olesya lutsenko, :) , david deangelo dating disinterest, 5427, dirk johnson willits dating, 797538, bbw dating ssbbw personals bbbw dating, rym, circa dating roman onyx cameo ring, 628113, who is dale earnhard jr dating, 48900, singles cruses, einmn, conscious dating ilene dillon, 294, katie leung dating rob pattinson, 419915, vindal singles, >:-[[[, clayton in olathe dating personals, 733,

  71. 71.   elsu Says:
  72. 72.   agoyoanye Says:
  73. 73.   oneida Says:
  74. 74.   mahaskah Says:
  75. 75.   ailill Says:
  76. 76.   alem Says:
  77. 77.   taiomah Says:
  78. 78.   esadowa Says:
  79. 79.   arden Says:
  80. 80.   augustin Says:
  81. 81.   zitkalasa Says:
  82. 82.   aurelio Says:
  83. 83.   ainsley Says:
  84. 84.   huslu Says:
  85. 85.   gajijens Says:
  86. 86.   kiasax Says:
  87. 87.   lrknojlr Says:

    sJBXcp abqldaphglwd, [url=http://ogkkhktqcvwl.com/]ogkkhktqcvwl[/url], [link=http://dnkzcwoqmpgl.com/]dnkzcwoqmpgl[/link], http://pidetahlesex.com/

  88. 88.   amor Says:
  89. 89.   arion Says:
  90. 90.   anwar Says:
  91. 91.   zlhna Says:
  92. 92.   alva Says:
  93. 93.   yoomee Says:
  94. 94.   abram Says:
  95. 95.   arch Says:
  96. 96.   maconaquea Says:
  97. 97.   lahoma Says:
  98. 98.   azibo Says:
  99. 99.   hotah Says:
  100. 100.   shonka Says:
  101. 101.   tokala Says:
  102. 102.   netspend online casino bonus Says:
  103. 103.   most popular online casino games tips Says:
  104. 104.   online casino accepting mastercard free Says:
  105. 105.   online casino rip off free Says:
  106. 106.   online casino 4 card poker bonus Says:
  107. 107.   video poker online casino deposit Says:
  108. 108.   alexandre Says:
  109. 109.   liluye Says:
  110. 110.   artan Says:
  111. 111.   tapa Says:
  112. 112.   bally slot machine Says:
  113. 113.   casino download free slot machine Says:
  114. 114.   munster slot machine Says:

Leave a Reply