Parkinson’s Drugs Seem to Spur a Compulsion Toward Gambling
Croupier, could I get an advance on this prescription bottle?
When you think of the “side effects” of prescription drugs, what comes to mind? If you’re like me (sensible, worldly, insightful, etc.), you might tend to think of things like heart arrhythmias, headaches, stomach irritation, dizziness, blurred vision, or even sexual issues
But would you have considered something like a GAMBLING ADDICTION?
Yet that’s exactly what researchers at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center in Phoenix, Arizona discovered in a recent year-long study of more than 1,800 patients, according to an article on my favorite online news source, Reuters. As it turns out, several members of a certain class of Parkinson’s drugs (a group classified as the dopamine agonists) seem to spur a compulsion toward gambling in an unusual number of patients-some of which dug themselves into debt by as much as $60,000 or more!
Normally, I’d say: Who studies this stuff? But this time, I’m saying: Thank God someone’s studying this stuff
As this example shows, in many cases we simply have NO IDEA of the extent of a given drug’s effect on our bodies, minds and psyches – and neither do our doctors or the drug makers, for that matter. Why? Because there are simply too many variables that can’t be quantified, analyzed, or even detected.
Sure, they can screen a drug to make sure it doesn’t have adverse effects on any number of easily measurable vital statistics and such, but how can anyone be absolutely sure of the extent of these substances’ subtle impact on such intangible things as our habits, urges, feelings, and impulses? They can’t. And for anyone to say that they know EVERYTHING about how a certain drug affects those who take it is the height of both folly and arrogance.
Drug makers and pro-drug doctors might argue that as side effects go, things could be a lot worse. Compulsive gambling, though a serious problem, hurts no one but the gambler-and maybe his or her family, to an extent
But I wonder if they’re considering this:
How many murders, suicides, rapes, assaults, accidents, or incidents of reckless endangerment may have occurred over the years as a result of hidden side effects of prescription medications that no one has ever thought to correlate?
Happy popping!
Honey, don’t forget to put on your vitamins!
Here’s one for the “weird” file
Soon, you may be able to give yourself a daily dose of vitamins, amino acids, and other such things just by putting on a shirt, sweater, or pair of jeans. No, it’s not a twisted chapter out of a Ray Bradbury novel – it’s what’s developing right now in Japan’s clothing industry.
Mind-boggling, isn’t it? Frankly, I’m not sure I can even wrap my noggin around the concept of it. I guess it’s not so far fetched, really – after all, salves, lotions, and skin patches are time-tested ways of delivering nutrients (and drugs) into the body
So why NOT clothing?
As of right now, several major sporting equipment giants and clothing labels in the Land of the Rising Sun are studying and test-marketing wearable items impregnated with all kinds of substances that feature health benefits formerly available only in foods and supplements. In less than five years, these garments will flood the market in the Far East. I can only imagine how soon after they’ll find their way to these shores.
And they say good nutrition isn’t fashionable
Wondering what they’ll think of next,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
