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Problem Gambling Related to Prescription Drug
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA --
Recent studies around the world have returned evidence that problem gambling may be neurological in cause, and is most likely merely a symptom of a deeper medical issue. This runs consistent with the increasingly popular belief that certain drugs can stimulate or dampen the urge to gamble.
Mirapex, a drug used to treat both Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome, is a substance named by many who have taken it as a cause for changes in behavior, most specifically an enormous increase in gambling impulses.
A case has just begun in Minnesota federal court, alleging that Boehringer Ingleheim, the manufacturer of Mirapex, was negligent, committed breach of warranty, and is liable as designer and producer of the drug, for compulsive gambling losses suffered by patients to whom the drug was prescribed.
Testimony of numerous patients reveal similar stories; people with litle or moderate intesrest in gambling found the hobby taking over their lives once they began taking Mirapex. Some lost hundreds of thousands while in the grip of the compulsion.
Once off Mirapex, the problem gambling urges disappeared within days. Some who had fought to control themselves in vain happened to stop taking the drug without knowing a possible connection, quit gambling, and only later realized how precise the timing of the two acts were.
If Mirapex, as a dopamine agonist, is foun to stimulate problem gambling, another piece of the puzzle that is compulsive gambling will be in place. As researchers are finding, brain pathology seems more likely a cause of addictive gambling than access or proliferation. Suitable therapy will likely include pharmaceutical treatment to adjust brain chemistry.
Despite the uninformed cries that allowing gambling causes problem gambling, the evidence is that people who display this symptom are in need of therapy for the base cause; the symptom is just a method of release.
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