Journal article
Pathologic gambling in patients with Parkinson's disease.
- Gschwandtner U Psychiatric Outpatient Department, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- Aston J
- Renaud S
- Fuhr P
- 2001-06-08
Published in:
- Clinical neuropharmacology. - 2001
Antiparkinson Agents
Dopamine Agonists
Exploratory Behavior
Female
Gambling
Humans
Levodopa
Middle Aged
Parkinson Disease
English
Patients with Parkinson's disease frequently have depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. We observed two patients who had episodes of pathologic gambling. At the same time, their Parkinson's disease deteriorated and they initiated self-medication with dopaminergic drugs. In both patients, signs were present of an addiction to dopaminergic medication. Pathologic gambling ceased in these patients after a few months. The significance of an insufficient dopaminergic reward system in patients with stereotypical addictive-like behavior (e.g., pathologic gambling) is discussed in this report. The most likely explanation for this newly recognized behavioral disorder in patients with Parkinson's disease is enhanced novelty seeking as a consequence of overstimulation of mesolimbic dopamine receptors resulting from addiction to dopaminergic drugs.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1097/00002826-200105000-00009
- PMID 11391129
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/184388
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