Clinical Neuropharmacology

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Clinical Neuropharmacology:
May/June 2001 - Volume 24 - Issue 3 - pp 170-172
Brief Reports

Pathologic Gambling in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Gschwandtner, Ute; Aston, Jacqueline; Renaud, Susanne; Fuhr, Peter

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Abstract

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.

© 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

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