Gambling linked to features of Parkinson's patients

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among patients with Parkinson's disease, the results of earlier research has suggested that pathological gambling is associated with drug treatment, specifically drugs in the class called dopamine agonists. A research team has now identified specific patient characteristics that appear to increase the likelihood that they will develop this drug-related compulsive behavior, including younger age at onset of Parkinson's disease, higher novelty-seeking personality traits, and a history of alcohol abuse.

Dr. Valerie Voon, currently with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, and her team conducted a study with Parkinson's disease patients who were treated at the Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario. The findings are reported in the Archives of Neurology.

Twenty-one patients with compulsive gambling and 42 patients without compulsive behaviors completed psychological assessment questionnaires and were examined by a neurologist and a psychologist. Voon's team also compared the patients with compulsive gambling with a second group of 286 Parkinson's disease patients who did not gamble and had participated in a previous trial.

Patients who were compulsive gamblers differed from the other two groups in their individual characteristics. The compulsive gamblers were younger when they were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, had a personal or family history of alcohol abuse, and were on therapies that included dopaminergic drugs.

The pathological gambling group also had higher scores on novelty-seeking behavior and medication-induced mania, and had impaired planning skills.

Voon and her associates recommend that clinicians screen for these risk factors they have identified and suggest that Parkinson's disease patients who have a higher risk of developing compulsive gambling may benefit from consulting.

SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, February 2007.