from:
Movement Disorders
Vol. 00, No. 00, 2009, pp. 000–000
2009 Movement Disorder Society
Esther M. Sammler, MD, MRCP (UK)*
Robert J. Swingler, MD, MRCP (UK)
Department of Neurology
Ninewells Hospital and Medical School
Letter to the Editor
"In some instances Parkinson's disease (PD) patients become addicted to their own medication, or develop behavioural addictions such as pathological gambling, compulsive shopping or hypersexuality," says Dr. Alain Dagher, neurologist at the MNI and co-author of the review. "This is surprising because PD patients typically have a very low incidence of drug abuse and display a personality type that is the opposite of the typical addictive personality. These rare, addictive syndromes, which appear to result from excessive dopaminergic treatment, illustrate the link between dopamine, personality and addiction."
PD patients treated with dopamine agonists had an incidence of pathological gambling as high as 8% compared to less than 1% in the general population. In PD patients who develop addictive disorders, the problems started soon after starting dopaminergic therapy and stopped after treatment was discontinued. It was found that adjusting the dosage and combination of medication resolved the addictive ...
dystonia feels like drug withdrawal. i've never had a drug addiction [except smoking], but i go thru dystonia when i get too off...it's always felt like a drug addiction. We don't know [and the doctors sure don't either] what is the illness and what is side effects of meds and they need to add what is drug withdrawal.
the poiint is [forgot to say it ha] that we shouldn't have to be on 'sides' with this issue, and wouldn't be if the science could be trusted.
how many people were in Stacy's study? i have met him personally re gdnf and willl say right up front he isn't my favorite.
paula