An interesting development, several pharmaceutical companies are being sued over the link between gambling and dopamine agonists. Dopamine agonists are commonly used as a treatment for parkinson's disease but have also been approved for restless leg syndrome.Major drug companies are to be sued over claims that they didn't warn patients quickly enough of the possible bizarre side effects of a drug for Parkinson's Disease. BBCNews
It has been known for several years that dopamine agonist have the potential to cause some adverse effects. These adverse effects include gambling too much (like losing your house), hypersexuality (too much sex, porn etc.) and overeating (like everything in sight). These types of behaviors fall under the innocuous label of "excessive pleasure seeking" and are similar to what happens in bipolar mania/hypomania.
Pramipexole has been shown to reduce levels of anhedonia in both depressed and parkinson's patients. This aspect of pramipexole is likely attributable to its agonist action on postsynaptic D2/D3 receptors in limbic areas of the brain like the nucleus accumbens (the brain's pleasure center). So these drugs may cause a person to seek out pleasurable activities to a greater extent because their reward center is being activated to a greater degree. When this is coupled with the executive dysfunction (poor attention/poor insight etc.) that can be induced by the drug due to understimulation of D1 type receptors in the prefrontal cortex, it could potentially lead to mindless compulsive pleasure seeking. Mindless compulsive pleasure seeking sounds like it's kind of fun, but in reality it has completely destroyed some people's lives. It goes to show you, that experiencing too much pleasure can have a negative impact on your life. Though, there are probably quite a few people who wouldn't mind the drug induced hypersexuality.
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