There has been more research into the link between people who take mirapex and its side-effect of gambling addiction. Mirapex is used by patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease as it controls the tremors which people inflicted with this dreadful disease suffer from.
However, a lot of users of Mirapex have experienced an increased desire to gamble with many cases of these users getting into heavy debt due to their compulsive gambling behaviour.
More than 200 people - who claim to have become gambling addicts by taking the drug - are planning to sue the medication’s maker for damages. Court proceedings are already taking place with three trials in Minneapolis, USA, to determine if taking Mirapex does actually cause people to become gambling addicts. The outcome of these trials will determine if the 200 people involved have a case to sue the manufacturers.
People taking Mirapex and similar drugs (which are known as dopamine agonists) have protested for years that they have experienced some form of compulsive behaviour after being prescribed with the medication. Compulsive eating, spending and sexual interest have also been believed to be side-effects of the drug as well as gambling. Many of these people claim they didn’t have the compulsive behaviour before taking the drug and the side-effects went away after they had stopped taking it. After such studies, the drugs have been labelled with a warning that compulsive behaviour might result from consumption.
Studies have backed up the link such as a 2005 report which found a link between the drug and compulsive behaviour, especially gambling.
Last month results from the largest study into the alleged link were presented at a Parkinson’s Disease conference in Chicago. The study concluded that 13 percent of people taking dopamine agonists suffer from one of the four serious compulsive behaviours.
The study involved patients from the USA and Canada and found that Parkinson’s patients taking dopamine agonists are three times more likely to develop compulsive behaviour than patients on different medication.
There have also been reports of Parkinson’s patients in the UK and the rest of Europe claiming that taking their drugs has led to problem gambling and other forms of addictive behaviour.
