The bizarre side effects these drugs cause might be more than you gambled on

Sex, lies, and…prescription drugs?

On the back of every lottery ticket, every online gambling website –anywhere you could risk your money on a game of chance — there’s a warning to “play responsibly.”

They all list phone numbers too, so you can get help with a gambling addiction.

But maybe that number should be: 1-800-FDA instead.

And not just for compulsive gambling either, but for addictions to shopping and even sex.

It all has to do with the bizarre side effects from a widely prescribed class of drugs called dopamine receptor agonists.

And you won’t believe what I’ve uncovered…

Several years ago I told you about Mr. Didier Jambard, a French man who sued GlaxoSmithKline after taking a drug called Requip for Parkinson’s.

He said it caused him to lose thousands at online gambling sites, attempt suicide eight times, and become addicted to gay sex.

Now I know this might sound like one of those frivolous lawsuits, but a year after Mr. Jambard (a married father of two) filed his suit, the Requip label got a new warning.

It warned about “increased sexual urges” and “unusual urges to gamble.” And not too long ago, Glaxo settled that case for over $250,000.

And Jambard wasn’t the first to take Big Pharma to court over these embarrassing and far-flung- sounding claims.

In 2008, a Minneapolis court awarded over $8 million for a patient suffering from similar addictions — caused by the drug Mirapex.

And in 2010 there was a big class action in Australia over these drug-induced sex and gambling compulsions.

But still, are these just sue-happy people looking to blame someone for their bad behavior?

Not at all.

The FDA has known about this “problem” for quite some time now. And so have researchers at universities and hospitals all over the country.

Now a new study just came out looking at 10 years’ worth of FDA data. And it confirmed that not only are these side effects real, but that the risk isn’t as “rare” as they want you to think.

Dr. Thomas Moore, a senior scientist at the Institute of Safe Medication Practices, just completed a review of all that FDA data.

In a study that was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine last month, Moore says that the numbers of those affected are at “an astronomical rate, in terms of drug adverse event risk.”

He added that astronomical might be “conservative.”

Moore and his team are asking that the FDA upgrade those “sex” and “gambling” mentions on the labels to be the kind people might actually see and read — that infamous big black box warning.

Another doctor, one with Harvard Medical School, wrote an editorial supporting Dr. Moore’s study. He said that there’s a lot of “underreporting” since it’s “easy to imagine that a patient would be ashamed,” and a lot of people will keep their behavior a secret.

When you realize how these drugs work, it makes sense that they can activate these kinds of sexual and gambling addictions. Because they interfere with dopamine.

Dopamine is responsible for many brain functions, but it’s best known for being associated with rewards and pleasure.

People with Parkinson’s disease have lower amounts of dopamine, and that’s what these meds were originally used for, since they can mimic how that chemical works in the brain.

But now, they’re commonly prescribed for such things as “restless leg syndrome” and hormonal disorders.

That’s right. Risky drugs meant for a serious disease used to treat RLS!

And even for a condition as severe as Parkinson’s, experts are warning that doctors have “overestimated the benefits and underestimated the risks” of taking these meds.

If you have been prescribed one of these drugs (called dopamine agonists), you need to be aware of what they can do to you.

These side effects might be terribly embarrassing to admit to, and certainly to talk with your husband or wife — or children — about. But if it happens to you, remember — it is just as much a drug side effect as nausea or headaches.

Sources:
“Parkinson’s drugs can cause compulsive gambling, sex: study” October 20, 2014, Newsmax Health, newsmaxhealth.com