Parkinson's Disease As A Risk Factor For Compulsive Gambling And Impulse Control Disorders

Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 23 Jun 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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There is also increasing knowledge about higher frequency of compulsive behavior in patients with PD compared to the general population. "These impulse control disorders such as pathological gambling, hyper-sexuality, compulsive shopping, compulsive eating or compulsive overuse of dopaminergic drugs can lead to monetary losses or worsen social handicap of PD patients," Professor Bassetti explains.

A current study from the Czech Republic being presented at the ENS meeting in Milan compared 20 patients with PD manifested before age 45 with 20 control subjects. A computer version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was used for testing. Patients with PD showed a significantly lower IGT-score - defined as the difference between a number of advantageous and disadvantageous choices - compared with the control group.

"It is necessary to consider pathological gambling in young Parkinson patients with regards to their treatment and possible clinical and sociological outcomes", the researchers concluded.

Source
European Neurological Society