Parkinson’s drugs can mess you up big time:
Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, have found that certain drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease can cause patients to become addicted to gambling. The drugs, called dopamine agonists, also have been found to boost patients’ appetites for sex, food, and alcohol.
“This is a striking effect,” said J. Eric Ahlskog, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic. “Pathological gambling induced by a drug is really quite unusual.”
In one case, a 54-year-old married pastor gambled daily at the local casino, hiding his losses from his wife.
In another, a 41-year-old computer programmer who had never gambled in his life became “consumed” with Internet gambling.
In a third, a 68-year-old man with no history of gambling lost more than U.S. $200,000 at casinos over a six-month period.
I wonder if that’s this guy’s problem, or this guy’s, or this ones; this guy for sure.