“Restless Leg Drug may Cause Compulsive Gambling”
Ivanhoe Newswire, February 12, 2007
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Roughly 3 million U.S. adults are problem gamblers, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. Now, a new study reveals a type of medication used to treat restless legs syndrome could add to that number.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., report a small number of patients became compulsive gamblers after starting treatment for restless legs syndrome, also known as RLS. The three patients were taking dopamine agonists, a class of medications used to treat restless legs syndrome and Parkinson’s.
Dopamine agonists essentially mimic the behavior of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine helps the brain control movements, which is why patients with Parkinson’s disease are prescribed dopamine agonists. Dopamine is also involved in the reward functions of the brain. The newest medications of this kind, pramipexole (Mirapex) and ropinirole (Requip), target the motivation, emotion, and reward centers of the brain. Researchers speculate the strong stimulation of those areas of the brain encourage patients to seek out pleasurable behaviors, like gambling.
Mayo Clinic researchers describe the case of a woman who, after starting treatment for restless legs syndrome, developed an uncontrollable urge to gamble. The patient reported no previous history of gambling. She eventually gambled away more than $140,000. Once she stopped taking ropinirole, she completely lost the urge to gamble.
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SOURCE: NEUROLOGY, 2007; 68:301-303
ED. - One of the factors contributing to RLS is low iron consumption (easily checked through blood tests for ferriten and RBC). I do hope that physicians are ruling out physical factors such as low iron before putting patients on dopamine agonists. Low iron is endemic in most societies at this time for women but many physicians do not run these routine blood tests. Fatigue, depression, shortness of breath on exertion, hair loss, bruising, restless leg syndrome can all be related to low ferritin levels.
