Dopamine
Dopamine-agonist drugs seem to have a very strange effect on people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease: it turns them into compulsive gamblers.
More than 7 per cent of Parkinson’s sufferers who take the drugs develop the compulsion, a problem that other-wise afflicts only 1 per cent of the general population.
But gambling isn’t the only form of compulsive behaviour triggered by these drugs. Patients are also almost as likely to become compulsive shop-pers or hypersexual—addicted to sex.
The gambling problem, though, is expecially prevalent among younger patients who take these drugs, or take a dopamine agonist together with levodopa.