It could be the title of the latest big-screen blockbuster — Sex, Lies, and Prescription Drugs!
A few months ago, I told you about how the antidepressant Abilify can send patients to the brink of financial ruin by causing them to compulsively gamble their money away.
Uncontrolled gambling, in fact, was added to the book-length Abilify label two years ago as a possible side effect – as well as warnings about obsessions with shopping, binge eating, sex, and other “urges.”
But Abilify isn’t the only med that can destroy your life and send everything you’ve worked for down the tubes.
A new study specifically looking at drugs used to treat Parkinson’s has discovered that “impulse control problems,” as the researchers call them, can hit over half of those taking certain drugs for the disease.
But the issue may even be much bigger than that. After all, how many patients would be willing to broach such a sensitive topic during one of those quickie doctor visits?
And I bet drugmakers are counting on the fact that anyone who’s suffering from one – or more – of these humiliating side effects won’t tell their friends, family, or doc about it.
But that’s exactly what needs to happen – because while there is currently no cure for Parkinson’s, a non-drug method of treating the disease has had remarkable success in putting the brakes on the advance of its devastating symptoms.
Risking it all
Raymond Harrison was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in his early 30s. When his symptoms worsened as he approached 50, his doctor thought Mirapex would help.
Instead, his life spiraled out of control, with Harrison spending practically all of his family’s money on gambling and porn. Suspecting Mirapex as the cause of his compulsive behavior, he quit the drug cold turkey — and after a painful year of dealing with the physical effects of withdrawal, his behavior returned to normal.
Then there’s Gary Charbonneau, a retired police officer from Minnesota. He probably thought he’d already seen everything in his line of work… but nothing could have prepared him for the side effects he suffered from the Parkinson’s med pramipexole, a.k.a. Mirapex.
Charbonneau’s addiction to gambling, which began a few years after starting up on the drug, ended up costing him $260,000.
And the scariest part is that this seemingly strange side effect actually comes as no surprise to at least one of the drugmakers – something that was revealed only after secret internal documents were released as part of hundreds of lawsuits against the manufacturers of Mirapex.
In the case of Charbonneau, a Minneapolis court agreed that not only was Mirapex responsible for his compulsions… but drugmakers Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer knew about the risk as far back as the original clinical trials in the 1990s, and they failed to warn patients about it.
As a result, Charbonneau was awarded nearly $8 million in punitive damages back in 2008.
But these brave souls who have come forward appear to be the exception — not the rule – as it’s likely that an untold number of other patients have done exactly what Big Pharma wants and kept their gambling, sex, or shopping addictions caused by these drugs a deep, dark secret.
Now, a new study done by French researchers has found that the extent of the problem is much more common than experts originally thought. They found that half of patients taking drugs known as “dopamine agonists” (which activate receptors in the brain for dopamine, the chemical Parkinson’s patients are lacking) are fully expected to suffer from an “impulse control” disorder.
The drugs most commonly connected with this condition, the researchers said, are Mirapex and another called Requip. The longer you take them… and the higher the dose… the greater the risk.
Fortunately, as I mentioned, life-wrecking pharmaceuticals that can bankrupt you aren’t the only game in town when it comes to Parkinson’s disease.
Last year, I told you about a treatment that can delay the onset of some of the most debilitating symptoms, such as loss of balance, stiffness, and weakness: exercise therapy!
Recent research has uncovered that high-intensity exercise during the early stages of the disease can bring the progression of symptoms to a screeching stop. And even if a patient is past that point, basically doing any type of exercise that gets them moving for around 20 minutes a day can slow the course of the disease – exactly what these risky meds are supposed to do!
If you’re currently taking one of these drugs for any reason, it’s vital that you know the risks involved. And if any of these side effects have hit you, it’s important not to be embarrassed about discussing them with your family and your doctor (or to find out what safer drugs are available — better yet, see if you can the medications entirely).
If you don’t talk about what’s wrong, you’re simply allowing Big Pharma to stuff one of its tragic secrets right back into the closet.
“Half of those on Parkinson’s drugs may develop impulse control problems” American Academy of Neurology” June 20, 2018, ScienceDaily, sciencedaily.com
