What Have Gambling and Overeating in Common?

A paper presented at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Chicago in June this year discussed a syndrome attributed to the use of dopamine-agonist drugs, like ropinirole (Requip®). This drug is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). Dr Poucher and other Quebec scientists found that as many as one in ten patients with RLS who are taking a dopamine–agonist drug have compulsive behaviors, which may be expressed as trichotillomania (pulling out one’s hair), Tourette-like signs, and compulsive shopping, gambling, or overeating.

A questionnaire was sent to 150 RLS patients, and 97 replies were received. Twelve (8 men, 4 women) had compulsive behaviors; these patients were more likely to have depression, stress, and poor sleep patterns than the other 85. The way to help them is to reduce the dosage of the dopamine agonist, but this may allow the RLS to get worse.

These compulsive behaviors, along with occasional cases of hypersexuality, are also seen in Parkinson’s patients taking this type of dopamine agonist. As many as 1.5% of Parkinson’s patients develop compulsive gambling, and, as we have seen, about 12% of RLS patients may get a compulsive behavioral problem.

Comments

[Rhonda Zylstra]

My husband has been on requip almost 4 years now along with Sinemet being added in 2005 for PD.I am looking for other people to come forward that have these same problems my husband has from taking requip. Compulsive spending, he is 100,000.00 in debt. Hypersexuality that led to an affair with our personl banker and I noticed his unusual behavior with another woman and stopped this.He had no idea how far in debt he was and was hiding everthing from me for the last few years. I also wathched him have sleep attacks since he started requip which could have led to a fatal accident because he was driving. He is also showing signs of confusion and memory loss. I just found this all out in August of this year and reported it all to his Doctor. She said requip and Parkinson's is to blame. He is now being weaned of the reuip gradually. We are looking for other people to come foward with similar problems from requip so we can find a lawyer to file a Class Action Suit in Canada against Glaxo Smith Kline. Any help would greatly be appreciated as how to do this so we can have Requip removed from the market. I know there is probably hundreds of people in Canada and the US in the same situation but are embarassed to come foward.
Thank you,
Rhonda Zylstra & Ken Chesher

[Adrienne]

I also took Requip for approximately 2 years between 2004-2006. It was prescribed by a nuerologist for restless leg syndrome. During that time I racked up over $150,000 of credit card debt. I had no ability to realistically assess the consequences of my actions. It was as if I had no IMPULSE CONTROL. At the time I was spending the money I just rationalized that "it (the debt) will all get taken care of".

My marriage has been destroyed, I'm facing bankruptcy and the loss of my home. The telephone rings 25-30 times a day; all of the calls are from credit card companies and collection agencies.

Before I read about the compulsive gambling/spending stories of other Requip users, I imagined that I was mentally ill, self-destructive, delusional, irresponsible and a total failure as a wife, a mother and an adult.I'm still not completely convinced that I'm not any of those things.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure a class action suit will be successful in redressing our losses. Most class action cases settle for pennies on the dollar actual losses that plaintiffs suffered. I'm glad you posted though - at least I know I'm not all alone. Good luck in your quest for financial recovery - and justice. -Adrienne