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As Mirapex Lawsuits Commence, More Evidence Links Parkinson's Drug to Gambling Addiction, Other Compulsive Behavior

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

For many patients with Parkinson's Disease, the drug Mirapex seemed to be a miracle. It offered the promise of stopping the tremors many had experienced or decades. Unfortunately, it is now apparent that Mirapex and similar drugs cause bizarre behavior in some users - with some developing gambling problems, heightened sexual interest or compulsive spending and eating habits where there had previously been no sign of compulsive behavior.

This week, the first of three "bellweather" trials concerning Mirapex and its alleged linkage to compulsive gambling is underway in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. More than 200 people are suing Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Mirapex, over compulsive behavior they say it caused.   These first three trials will be used by many legal experts to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of those cases.

People with Parkinson's lack dopamine in key areas of the brain.   Mirapex and drugs like it are known as a dopamine agonist, and they work by mimicking the effects of this vital hormone and neurotransmitter. Other dopamine agonists include Requip, Parlodel, Dostinex Apokyn and Neupro.

For years, people taking Mirapex and similar drugs have complained about problems with compulsive behavior. Most of those complaints involved people who had no history of compulsive behavior before they started dopamine agonist therapy, and most reported that the behavior stopped as soon as they quit using the drugs. Several small studies, including one published in 2005 by Mayo Clinic researchers, found a link between the drugs and compulsive behavior, especially gambling addiction.   The drugs' labeling also includes warnings about possible compulsive behavior.

In June, results from the largest study ever to investigate the connection between compulsive behavior and dopamine agonists was presented at the at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders conference in Chicago. That study found that more than 13 percent of patients taking dopamine agonists, sold under brand names suffer from at least one of four serious behavioral addictions.

The study, which looked at more than 3,000 patients from 46 medical centers in the United States and Canada, found that Parkinson's patients on dopamine agonists are nearly three times more likely to have at least one impulse-control disorder compared with patients receiving other treatments.

The growing evidence that Mirapex and other similar drugs are linked to compulsive behavior has changed the way some doctors approach these medications. Dr. Eric Ahlskog, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic who has treated Parkinson's patients for 25 years, told The Chicago Tribune that he no longer is comfortable starting patients on dopamine agonists after three patients in his practice last year developed significant gambling and sexual problems.

Other doctors told the Tribune that while they still treat patients with dopamine agonists, they are using smaller doses. Many are also now asking the patients they treat with the drugs and their families about compulsive behaviors as part of routine patient checkups.

"Disease Mongering" Behind Blockbuster Requip Sales

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a relatively new term that has become somewhat ubiquitous following a multi-million dollar ad campaign spearheaded by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. Given that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved generic versions of Requip, RLS may have run its course, according to experts.

In 2005, the FDA approved the first drug for RLS—a twitching condition affecting the legs—launching a new household term, a new designer disorder, and a multi-million-dollar consumer ad campaign. Television ads hyping ropinirole hydrochloride, a drug originally used to treat Parkinson’s disease, sent patients to doctors demanding brand name, Requip. In under a year, Requip sales doubled from $165 million in 2005 to nearly $330 million in 2006. By last year, 4.4 million prescriptions were written, with sales of nearly $491 million, according to IMS health, an industry information agency.

Some call the RLS phenomenon an example of “disease mongering” in which promoters, such as drug companies, deliberately enlarge the market by promoting advertisement and convincing people they’re sick and need treatment. “You may have something that’s a normal condition,” said Dr. Lisa M. Schwartz, associate professor of medicine and community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire. “It makes you wonder whether there’s a disease to be treated.” Schwartz and her husband, Dr. Steven Woloshin, also at Dartmouth, say that drug company promotions, combined with uncritical media reporting, exaggerated the prevalence of RLS, leading to over-diagnosis and -treatment with powerful brain-altering drugs.

At least one sleep disorder specialist expects the focus on RLS to fade as rapidly as the Requip television commercials, which have been pulled. “Restless legs syndrome is a great example of a suddenly out-of-the-blue disease,” said Dr. Christopher J. Earley, an associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who treats RLS. Advertising created an overheated demand for diagnosis among consumers, while samples gave and easy answer for busy doctors, he said. "I would anticipate there would be something of a fall-off," Earley said.

That prediction alarms patient advocates who welcomed public attention—and all that drug industry funding; however, the generic switch leads to fewer ads, that should decrease patient demand for diagnosis and treatment, leaving only the most serious sufferers to weigh the benefits against potentially severe side effects. Doctors may not be inclined to prescribe the drug if the supply of brand-name samples disappears; generics won’t come with samples.

Ad decline depends largely on the makers of Mirapex, the second-leading drug approved to treat RLS, said Schwartz. “If it ends up that they pull back, the market might go down,” Schwartz said. “It’s usually a pretty sharp drop,” said Glaxo spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne.

Though drugmakers portrayed their products as a sure-fire cure for symptoms, the reality isn’t so certain. The range varied considerably in the trials, none of which lasted more than 12 weeks.

And, side effects can be considerable. The biggest problems included debilitating nausea, dizziness, and falling asleep during daily activities and studies link the drugs to compulsions such as gambling or sexual promiscuity. Even when the drugs do work, patients face problems of increased tolerance, which can cause augmentation, in which the drug increases RLS symptoms.

Investigation: Secret Side Effects

Sun, 21 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700

What's more bizarre is that these drugs are used to treat many common ailments and you might be taking them.

What if you couldn't stop eating, longed for sex 24/7 or couldn't wait to gamble away your life savings.

Stories of strangers all over the country and each unaware they were linked by a common bond.

A pill they thought would help they say ultimately drove them to self-destruction.

A pill you may have in your medicine cabinet.

Fifteen years ago, 59-year old Brian Hearn was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

In 1997, drugs like it came on the market and the drugs worked.

What patients don't know is that the drugs may have been working overtime and over-stimulating part of their brain.

Hearn spent night after night gambling online, something he says he'd never done.

He almost lost his home and marriage.

Luckily, he mentioned the gambling, and the fact that he lost a quarter of a million dollars, to his doctor.

Almost immediately, they reduced his Mirapex.

Hearn says it was like turning a light switch to solve his problem.

And Brian is not alone.

In Texas, Max Wells says he gambled away $14 million on this class of drug.

He says his libido went out of control, contributing to the failure of his marriage.

In Philadelphia, Robert Seely killed himself and his wife.

A lawsuit blames an elevated dosage of Mirapex.

A doctor at the Mayo Clinic was one of the first to discover the connection between these drugs and the obsessive compulsive behavior.

While Mirapex is only FDA approved for Parkinson's, there's a trend experts say that could lead to many more victims.

Doctors are prescribing it for everything from depression to sleep disorders.

Reports have existed for years.

We discovered nearly a dozen.

Some doctors and others say the pharmaceutical companies never translated these reports to adequate warnings.

Experts say 100,000 or more could suffer these devastating obsessive compulsive effects.

Countless lawsuits blame the drug makers.

The makers recently strengthened the language on package inserts and tell us they are committed to patient safety, but victims say it's not enough.

They want bold labels right on the bottles.

The makers of Requip say there is no scientific connection between the OCD behavior and their drug.

Second Parkinson's Drug, Requip, Blamed for Compulsive Gambling that Cost Retired Doctor $14 Million

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800

Up until now, Mirapex has been the medication most often associated with the mounting medical evidence linking certain drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD) to the development of compulsive behavior, including pathological gambling.

Now, however, a second drug has been thrust into the same spotlight with the filing of a $14 million lawsuit by a retired doctor who claims that Requip, a drug very similar to Mirapex, turned him into a compulsive gambler.

Dr. Max Wells alleges in the action commenced in U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, that his addiction made him a habitual high roller at Las Vegas casinos where he lost $7 million by late 2005 and another $7 million by January of this year.

As reported by The Oxford Press (Oxford, Ohio), the complaint names the drug’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK – sued as SmithKline Beecham), the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, and seven casinos, including Mandalay, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas, Las Vegas Sands, Harrah's Las Vegas and Hard Rock Hotel.

At the heart of the doctor’s lawsuit is the Mayo Clinic study published last July in the Archives of Neurology that identified 11 Parkinson’s patients who developed a gambling habit while taking Mirapex or Requip between 2002 and 2004. After the study was released, 14 additional Mayo patients were diagnosed with the problem according to lead author Dr. M Leann Dodd, a psychiatrist at the Clinic.

Previously, in August 2003 in the journal Neurology, Drs. E. Driver-Dunckley, J. Samanta, and M. Stacey published an article entitled “Pathological gambling associated with dopamine agonist therapy in Parkinson’s disease.”

That study found extreme cases of compulsive gambling in nine (of 1,884) patients using pramipexole (8 or 1.5%)) and pergolide (1 or 0.3%). Both results were well above the overall incidence rate of all PD patients of 0.05%. Both drugs that showed an increased risk were dopamine agonists (DA).

The Mayo Clinic study also analyzed the findings in five prior studies (including the 2003 Driver-Dunckley study) and confirmed that: “All of the commonly prescribed dopamine agonists have been associated with pathological gambling” with pramipexole being “disproportionately represented in both our series (82% of our patients) and in prior reports (59%).”

Mirapex (pramipexole dihydrochloride) is in the dopamine agonist class of drugs and is believed to work by mimicking the action of dopamine in the brain to help control the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Dopamine also affects brain processes that control emotional responses and a person's ability to experience pleasure and pain. It is thought to play a role in addictive behavior.

As we previously reported, these medications present another example of drugs whose benefits come with a very high price tag for some patients. The ones who become addicted to gambling often wind up losing their life savings, fall deeply into debt, and even jeopardize or destroy their marriages or other personal or family relationships.

In the past, the victims of this harsh side-effect had no idea what had come over them. Their brain was literally taken over and their gambling became constant and compulsive. Simply stated, they were out of control and had no idea why. For these people, the situation was frightening and inexplicable.

As a result of this completely bizarre and damaging side-effect, many Mirapex and Requip users suffered long periods of debilitating and destructive behavior during which they were unaware that the drug was causing the problem and that it would cease if they discontinued taking it.

Mirapex is manufactured by German-based Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, the world's biggest family-owned drug company, in cooperation with New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker. Its sales for 2004 topped $200 million in the U.S. alone.

.Boehringer Ingelheim lists "compulsive behaviors (including sexual and pathological gambling)" as a possible side effect associated with taking Mirapex. That seven-word phrase on page 17 of a 21-page highly technical document is all the warning that is given concerning the potentially detrimental side-effect.

While Boehringer-Ingelheim has repeatedly claimed there is no scientific evidence upon which to base the conclusion that Mirapex causes addictive or compulsive behavior, the multiple reputable studies on the subject would seem to indicate otherwise. In addition, the company revised its package insert to include the warning with respect to “compulsive behavior” despite its denial of the connection.

Now, additional evidence of the association between Mirapex and other dopamine agonists and impulsive behavior has appeared in the form of an analysis of adverse drug reports in the FDA’s database. Of the reports specifically dealing with compulsive gambling, 39 (58%) involved Mirapex.

The report, which analyzes these adverse events, appears in the February issue of Archives of Neurology. The authors include a psychiatrist, P. Murali Doraiswamy (Duke University), and three FDA scientists.

According to Dr. Doraiswamy: "When you combine this with other pieces of evidence, it seems highly suggestive that there is a causal relationship."

While the evidence is consistent with other findings linking dopamine agonists with an increased risk of impulsive behavior, the researchers claim to have found no similar reports involving antipsychotic drugs, which inhibit dopamine.

Boehringer Ingelheim has now backed off its hard line denial of a link just a bit by stating that it is working with Parkinson’s experts to “investigate the relationship if any.”

GSK claims that its drug, Requip, is appropriately labeled with respect to potential side-effects.
Dr. Wells claims that the casinos were aware that he had PD and that he was on medication for the disease while he was gambling.

Wells had originally been taking Mirapex for his PD but, when he noticed his occasional recreational gambling had become more serious, he told his doctor that he thought that drug might be the cause. His doctor changed his medication to Requip and increased the dosage.

Although Wells then began running up massive gambling losses and some $1.2 million in debts that remain unpaid, his wife remained unaware of the problem since she was not present when the losses occurred.

When Wells finally told his wife about the losses, the problem was brought to the attention of his physician. As soon as the Requip was stopped, so did the compulsive gambling.

The behavioral changes witnessed in some Parkinson’s patients whose therapy includes dopamine agonists can be wide-ranging indeed. On the mild side, some start buying lottery tickets and nothing more. Others, however, have been known to develop serious OCD (obsessive compulsive disorders) as well as aggressive sexual impulses, overeating, medication abuse, or pathological gambling.

Since these personality changes are dramatic and involve conduct that the patient has usually not exhibited in the past, relatives and associates should be aware of the potential problem and remain watchful for marked behavioral changes.

PD causes sufferers to gradually lose dopamine. Thus, they actually develop an aversion to the type of impulsive behavior associated with excess dopamine. When Mirapex, Requip, or another dopamine agonist is introduced, the behavioral changes in those adversely affected can be both quick and dramatic.

Currently, two major lawsuits against Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer have been commenced in federal court in California and in Superior Court in Ontario, Canada. They allege a number of addictive behaviors associated with Mirapex including gambling, shopping, having sex, eating, and engaging in other compulsive conduct.

It is likely that additional lawsuits will be commenced in the near future since the problem is as widespread as the locations of people who took Mirapex or Requip.

Gambler blames Parkinson's for his addiction

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800

After gambling away $14 million, a retired physician from Austin, Texas, is making one last bet, that he'll recover his loss by suing casinos and the makers of his Parkinson's medication.

Dr. Max Wells says the drug company failed to warn patients that Requip and a similar drug called Mirapex could cause compulsive gambling. He also says Las Vegas casinos, including the Wynn, Bellagio and Harrah's, share the blame because they let him gamble, even though they knew he was on the medication and compulsive about it.

Dr. Wells' attorney, Tom Thomas, joined Tucker Carlson, on ‘Sitiuation’ to discuss his client’s case.

To read an excerpt from their conversation, continue to the text below. To watch the video, click on the "Launch" button to the right.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, ‘SITUATION’: Now, I understand that there's a likelihood that this medication did make your client compulsive about gambling; whether it made him a compulsive gambler is a different question. Let's just say that right off the top. I think it's possible.

TOM THOMAS, ATTORNEY FOR DR. MAX WELLS: Yes, there are some studies. Mayo Clinic published one in '05. There's been one as recently as three weeks ago. There's no doubt that in a number of these patients that they're compulsive gambling.

CARLSON: Yes, I absolutely believe it. But this guy lost $14 million. OK.

THOMAS: Yes. His life savings.

CARLSON: After about, say, a million dollars or $7 million or even, say, $10 million, why didn't he seek treatment?

THOMAS: It wouldn't have made any difference if it had been $100 million. If you've got a compulsion, you can't stop.

CARLSON: Well, you can tell other people you have a compulsion. Of course you can stop. I know a million compulsive drinkers. I know some compulsive gamblers who've stopped. I mean, there are a lot of people with compulsions who either control them or turn to other people to help them control them. Why didn't your client do that?

THOMAS: Because he's taking a drug. You can't control it when you're taking the drug that creates the compulsion. You can only control it by stopping to take the drug.

CARLSON: But he must have been aware that he was losing millions and millions and millions of dollars, correct?

THOMAS: You know, he was aware of it. But the compulsion overcame the feelings that you describe that most of us would have. You're importing or assuming and properly and understandably so a rational train of thought. That's one of the evils of this particular problem, is it destroys rationality. No rational person would squander $14 million in 10 months.

CARLSON: There's no question your client's insane, whether it's the drug's fault or not. Of course, you lose $14 million it's bad.

I'm just saying that people with compulsions to drink, to do drugs, to gamble, are not completely insane. They understand they're destroying themselves, and that's why many of them reach out to other people to help them. There is an element of free will in this disease, even if you're taking Parkinson's medication. So why didn't he do that?

THOMAS: There's not much of an element of free will when you're choosing between the only drug that will give you any normalcy in your life and a byproduct that you don't know is being created by that drug.

CARLSON: I guess I'm not going to ask you for a fifth time why he didn't go to Gamblers Anonymous. Why didn't his wife pipe up? Apparently, the Las Vegas casinos treated them like the whales they were, and sent them on a cruise to Alaska, and gave them all kinds of comps. She must have known.

THOMAS: She didn't know how much. If you've been to Las Vegas, you know wives don't gamble with husbands. And he had his own—their money separately. She didn't know.

CARLSON: Did a casino send your client on a cruise to Alaska?

THOMAS: They did. She knew that they were gambling money. She had no idea it was in the millions.

CARLSON: OK. Well, I'm sure she didn't. But I mean, she couldn't have imagined she was being sent on a cruise because her husband was winning at the craps table, correct?

THOMAS: I don't know what she imagined about that. She's a high school math teacher. I don't think she knows beans about it.

CARLSON: She does now.

THOMAS: She does now. And in fact, it was her ultimate questioning that led to Max's seeking some help where he was taken off the drug.

CARLSON: Wait. Just to go back to something you said. She's a math teacher you said?

THOMAS: Yes, she's a math teacher.

CARLSON: But not obviously, not a very good math teacher if she couldn't figure out that he was losing a lot of money.

THOMAS: Now, that's not so. You can't draw that conclusion if you don't know what's happening.

CARLSON: Well, because your case rests on the notion that he is notand his wife, by extension is not in any way responsible for losing all this dough. And I'm just suggesting that a math teacher and an aware human being might suspect that something was terribly wrong.

Where did the $14 million come from, anyway?

THOMAS: He sold his practice when he had to retire because of the Parkinson's.

CARLSON: Do you think there's any chance you're going to get this money back?

THOMAS: Sure there's a chance I'm going to get this money back.

CARLSON: From the casinos or from the drug company?

THOMAS: Both. The drug companies have an obligation to warn what they know about, if it's a threat, and they didn't do that. If they would had warned him, like anybody else, or most other drugs, then he could have gotten the help or taken the steps that he ultimately did once the warnings came out.

CARLSON: Finally, has any Las Vegas casino ever returned money to a person who claims he's a compulsive gambler?

THOMAS: You know, I don't know the answer to that. The ones that I do know about, the ones that went to final judgment, they did not. I do know there have been several settlements where they have, in fact.

CARLSON: Boy, if you win this, they're in deep trouble.

THOMAS: No, they really won't be. This is a very unique statute that we have in Texas that we're suing under. This isn't just generally saying give the money back because X, Y and Z. This is saying give the money back because we have a very specific statute in Texas that I think prohibits what happened here. So I can't imagine this case would ever repeat itself.

Doctor sues drug company, casinos after losing $14 million

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800

When the retired doctor from Austin suddenly began spending big money at the casinos, the casinos assigned him a "host," and gave him first-class airfare to Las Vegas, free hotel suites and meals, and shopping trips for his wife, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin.

The casinos even gave him an Alaskan cruise, the lawsuit says.

The retired doctor, Max Wells, kept coming back, the lawsuit says and kept losing money. By the fall of 2005, Wells had lost $7 million, the lawsuit says. By January, another $7 million.

Now Wells is suing the casinos and a major drug company, claiming that the prescription drugs he was taking for Parkinson's disease set off a compulsive gambling spree.

Wells, 55, wants his money back. He declined to comment Tuesday.

His lawsuit, filed Friday, says the drug company didn't warn patients that the drug Requip could cause compulsive behavior. And it cites a 2005 Mayo Clinic study that found 11 Parkinson's patients who developed compulsive gambling habits while taking Requip and a similar drug called Mirapex. The gambling ceased for eight of the 11 when they stopped taking the drugs; test results were not available for the other three patients, the study said.

GlaxoSmithKline, which is referred to as SmithKline Beecham in the lawsuit the companies merged in 2000 said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit Tuesday.

"We will certainly investigate the allegations when we receive the complaint," said Mary Anne Rhyne, a company spokeswoman. "We believe the drug is appropriately labeled."

The lawsuit claims the casinos knew Wells, 55, had Parkinson's, a degenerative disorder which damages nerve cells and causes shaking, slowness and difficulty with balance. Wells told the casinos he had Parkinson's, said his lawyer, Tom Thomas with Winstead Sechrest & Minick in Dallas, and he "was taking the medication while he was gambling."

The lawsuit says the casinos should have been aware of the Mayo study, which Thomas said was heavily publicized in Las Vegas during the summer of 2005.

None of the seven casinos named in the lawsuit returned calls Tuesday. They include Mandalay, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas, Las Vegas Sands, Harrah's Las Vegas and Hard Rock Hotel.

Wells, a retired pathologist, was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000, according to the lawsuit. After taking Mirapex for several months in 2004, Wells "developed an irresistible compulsion to gamble," the lawsuit said.

Wells, who Thomas said had been an occasional gambler, lost several thousand dollars gambling in Las Vegas and on the Internet, according to the lawsuit. After he told his doctor that he thought Mirapex was causing him to gamble, his physician switched him to Requip and increased the dosage, the lawsuit said.

As Wells was losing $14 million which included about $1.2 million in IOUs called markers that Wells hasn't paid his wife was unaware of his losses because she wasn't gambling with him, Thomas said.

During the last week of January, Wells' wife began to question him and he confessed to the losses, the lawsuit said. When his doctor took him off Requip, his gambling compulsion stopped, Thomas said.

Despite the losses Wells claims, he's not bankrupt, Thomas said.

"I would say he hasn't lost the farm, but he's lost the ranch," he said.

Requip Gambling Lawyer Side Effects Gambling Addiction

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800

Requip Side Effect Lawyers

Keywords: Requip Gambling Lawyer Side Effects Gambling Addiction

The lawyers / attorneys at our firm are investigating potential lawsuits on behalf of victims of Requip side effects. Requip is a popular medication used to control tremors associated with Parkinson’s Disease and Restless Leg Syndrome. Unfortunately, drugs like Requip have been associated with gambling addictions and other compulsive behaviors. If you or someone you know developed such a problem after starting treatment with this drug, we urge you to contact one of our Requip side effect lawyers as soon as possible to protect your legal rights.

Most victims of Requip side effects have had no prior history of obsessive or compulsive behaviors before starting therapy. And in virtually every case, the compulsive behavior subsided once Requip was discontinued. Despite such reports, the maker of Requip has denied that there is an association between these behaviors and this medication. However, our Requip side effect lawyers are aware of numerous studies that show otherwise.

Victims of Requip compulsivity disorders may be entitled to compensation for their pain and suffering. The Requip side effects lawyers at our firm have been able to achieve excellent results for victims of other defective drugs, and we are committed to making sure those whose lives have been impacted by Requip impulse control disorders receive the compensation they deserve.

Requip is a dopamine agonist and works by mimicking the effects of this neurotransmitter. Parkinson's Disease occurs because of a lack of dopamine in certain areas of the brain. Dopamine helps people control their movements and increases feelings of happiness and satisfaction.

Dopamine agonists are powerful drugs, and can drastically alter brain chemistry. For example, dopamine is known to produce a “rush” in the brain of people who are anticipating a reward or excitement. Many experts believe that such a biochemical reaction is behind the reports of compulsive behavior linked to Requip and similar drugs.

The behavioral changes witnessed in some patients whose therapy includes dopamine agonists can be wide-ranging. On the mild side, some start engaging in benign activities - for example, frequently buying lottery tickets - and nothing more. Others, however, have been known to develop serious OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), as well as aggressive sexual impulses, overeating, medication abuse, or pathological gambling problems.

Since these personality changes are dramatic and involve conduct that the patient has usually not exhibited in the past, relatives and associates of anyone being treated with Requip should be aware of the potential problem and remain watchful for marked behavioral changes.

The side effects of dopamine agonists like Requip have caused bankruptcies, broken marriages, depression and even suicide. As a result, more than 300 lawsuits against the makers of these medications have been filed in courts around the country. These cases have been consolidated in a Multidistrict Litigation in the US District Court in Minneapolis.

The first verdict was reached in a "bellwether" dopamine agonist lawsuit in the summer of 2008. This lawsuit, which involved the drug Mirapex, resulted in an $8.2 million jury award for the drug's victim, who blamed the dopamine agonist for his compulsive gambling. In light of this case, the prospects that other dopamine agonist lawsuits will be decided in favor of plaintiffs are extremely good.

Studies Link Requip and Similar Drugs to Gambling Addiction, Compulsive Behavior

Scores of Requip users claim to have developed compulsivity problems while taking this drug. Over the years, researchers have been able to document a strong correlation between drugs like Requip and these problems.

In 2003, researchers at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona published a study that involved the monitoring of 1,800 Parkinson's patients over a one year period. Of the 529 patients in the study who took another dopamine agonist called Mirapex, eight developed gambling addictions. For most patients, the gambling behavior improved after they stopped taking the medication.

In July 2005, Mayo Clinic researchers reported more documented behavior that supported an association between Requip and other dopamine agonists with gambling addiction and compulsive behaviors. The report detailed 11 Parkinson's patients who developed gambling problems while taking Requip or similar drugs between 2002 and 2004. After the study’s completion, the Mayo clinic researchers identified 14 additional patients with the problem.

Finally, results from the largest study ever to investigate the connection between compulsive behavior and dopamine agonists like Requip was presented at the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders conference in Chicago in 2008. The study found that, out of 3,000 patients from 46 medical centers in the United States and Canada, 13 percent of those taking dopamine agonists suffered from at least one of four serious behavioral addictions.

The 2008 dopamine agonists study sent shockwaves throughout the medical world. In an article detailing the study in The Chicago Tribune, some doctors said that they would no longer prescribe drugs like Requip. Others said they were strongly warning their patients who used Requip and similar drugs to be on the lookout for signs that they might be developing compulsive behaviors.

Other Requip Side Effects

In addition to compulsivity problems, Requip has been linked to a variety of other side effects. The lawyers at our firm are offering free consultations to anyone who was treated with Requip and developed other problems related to its use.

Other Requip side effects include:

Abnormal dreams
Arthritis
Chest Pain
Confusion
Constipation
Difficulty breathing/walking
Hallucinations
Vision abnormalities
Decrease blood pressure resulting in nausea, fainting, blackouts and profuse sweating.

Help for Requip Side Effect Victims

If you or someone you love developed a gambling addiction or some other compulsive behavior after starting treatment with Requip, you have valuable legal rights. Please fill out our online form, or call 1-800 LAW INFO (1-800-529-4636) to speak with an experienced Requip side effects lawyer at our firm.