According to Dr Dodd, Mayo Clinic doctors now ask patients on the drugs whether they have taken up gambling. Those patients who have are switched to different drugs or doses, and the result is often dramatic, "like a light switch being turned off when they stopped the drug," Dr Dodd told the Associated Press on July 12, 2005.
Two of the patients who were switched to another drug required additional psychiatric treatment to quit gambling and one patient who withdrew from the program committed suicide after a relapse into gambling.
The study above, means that 1 out of the 11 patients committed suicide due to this problem, but according to Joe, "Most of the reporting on this situation has missed the real story."
"There have been many suicide attempts," he reports, "with God only knows how many of them successful."
"There have been countless bankruptcies, lost businesses, ruined professional careers, emptied retirement accounts," Joe says.
The gambling has devastating effects on families. "There has been a horrible toll in wrecked marriages, personal trust and relationships, and familial estrangement caused by this drug," he reports.
And Joe would know. He was a highly respected government employee trusted to work on intelligence-related issues for 25 years before he retired in 1999.
"I held an extremely responsible position, with a Top Secret clearance, at the Defense Department," Joe recounts, "and this drug turned me into a lying, thieving, duplicitous lout for two full years."
The FDA and drug makers have known about the gambling side effect for years. In the August 2003 issue of Neurology, Dr E Driver-Dunckley, Dr J Samanta, and Dr M Stacey published the results of a study in an article entitled "Pathological gambling associated with dopamine agonist therapy in Parkinson's disease."
That study found extreme cases of compulsive gambling in nine out of 1,884 patients, with 8 using Mirapex and one patient on the drug pergolide, another dopamine agonist drug.
In addition to Parkinson's disease, Mirapex is also prescribed for a condition known as "restless leg syndrome." Dr Jay Van Gerpen, a neurologist and movement disorder specialist from Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, told Healthday Reporter at the time, that he wasn't surprised by this study's findings.
"Medicines for Parkinson's disease may elicit unwanted side effects relating to mood and personality," says Van Gerpen. "These medicines are extremely useful, but they may produce unwanted effects. Dopamine agonists can be associated with changes in personality, such as sexual inappropriateness, and changes in sleep cycles. Patients need to be aware of these possibilities," according to Healthday on August 11, 2003.
In August of 2003, the Stacy report hit the news and may have saved Joe Neglia's life. As soon as he learned the cause of his problem, he immediately stopped taking Mirapex and amazingly he stopped gambling within one week.
"I tried to lower the dose," Joe explained, "but the gambling restarted." Next he switched to a different dopamine agonist drug but the gambling started again.
In late February of 2004, he quit all dopamine agonists entirely, and has not gambled one red cent in nearly two years. "There is simply no compulsion to gamble anymore," he says.
"Only upon stopping the drug," Joe says, "did I return to my old, responsible self."
Two of the patients who were switched to another drug required additional psychiatric treatment to quit gambling and one patient who withdrew from the program committed suicide after a relapse into gambling.
The study above, means that 1 out of the 11 patients committed suicide due to this problem, but according to Joe, "Most of the reporting on this situation has missed the real story."
"There have been many suicide attempts," he reports, "with God only knows how many of them successful."
The gambling has devastating effects on families. "There has been a horrible toll in wrecked marriages, personal trust and relationships, and familial estrangement caused by this drug," he reports.
And Joe would know. He was a highly respected government employee trusted to work on intelligence-related issues for 25 years before he retired in 1999.
"I held an extremely responsible position, with a Top Secret clearance, at the Defense Department," Joe recounts, "and this drug turned me into a lying, thieving, duplicitous lout for two full years."
The FDA and drug makers have known about the gambling side effect for years. In the August 2003 issue of Neurology, Dr E Driver-Dunckley, Dr J Samanta, and Dr M Stacey published the results of a study in an article entitled "Pathological gambling associated with dopamine agonist therapy in Parkinson's disease."
That study found extreme cases of compulsive gambling in nine out of 1,884 patients, with 8 using Mirapex and one patient on the drug pergolide, another dopamine agonist drug.
In addition to Parkinson's disease, Mirapex is also prescribed for a condition known as "restless leg syndrome." Dr Jay Van Gerpen, a neurologist and movement disorder specialist from Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, told Healthday Reporter at the time, that he wasn't surprised by this study's findings.
"Medicines for Parkinson's disease may elicit unwanted side effects relating to mood and personality," says Van Gerpen. "These medicines are extremely useful, but they may produce unwanted effects. Dopamine agonists can be associated with changes in personality, such as sexual inappropriateness, and changes in sleep cycles. Patients need to be aware of these possibilities," according to Healthday on August 11, 2003.
In August of 2003, the Stacy report hit the news and may have saved Joe Neglia's life. As soon as he learned the cause of his problem, he immediately stopped taking Mirapex and amazingly he stopped gambling within one week.
"I tried to lower the dose," Joe explained, "but the gambling restarted." Next he switched to a different dopamine agonist drug but the gambling started again.
In late February of 2004, he quit all dopamine agonists entirely, and has not gambled one red cent in nearly two years. "There is simply no compulsion to gamble anymore," he says.
"Only upon stopping the drug," Joe says, "did I return to my old, responsible self."
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