(Press-News.org) ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers found that dopamine agonists used in treating Parkinson's disease result in impulse control disorders in as many as 22 percent of patients.
Mayo Clinic first reported on this topic in 2005. The follow-up study was published online in the February 2011 issue of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders.
Dopamine agonists, a class of drugs that include pramipexole (Mirapex) and ropinirole (Requip), are commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease. The drugs stimulate the brain's limbic circuits, which are thought to be pathways for emotional, reward and hedonistic behaviors. The medications have been linked to such impulse control disorders as pathological gambling and hypersexuality and to compulsive behaviors such as binge eating, spending, computer use or "hobbying."
Researchers reviewed Parkinson's disease patients' records over a recent two-year period, says Anhar Hassan, M.B., B.Ch., a neurology fellow at Mayo Clinic and lead investigator on the study.
"During this time, movement disorder physicians at Mayo Clinic were keenly aware that impulse control disorders could occur with these dopamine agonist drugs. If they encountered a patient who was taking this drug, they asked them or an accompanying family member whether or not they had noticed any new type of behavior. What we found was that in as many as 22 percent of patients during that two-year period had a new onset impulse control disorder," she says.
The study found that the higher the dose, the greater the likelihood of an impulse control behavior. "One in four patients who were on a medium therapeutic dose of the medication had an impulse control disorder," Dr. Hassan says. "For patients who were taking a higher range of the medication, about one in three developed an impulse control disorder."
Patients taking dopamine agonists should be aware of potential behavioral changes so they can be caught early, before they or their families are harmed, Dr. Hassan says. Once a new behavior is identified, reducing or stopping the medication usually resolves the problem over a few days to a month, she says.
### Other members of the Mayo research team included James Bower, M.D.; Neeraj Kumar, M.D.; Joseph Matsumoto, M.D.; Robert Fealey, M.D.; Keith Josephs, M.D.; and J. Eric Ahlskog, M.D., Ph.D.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research, and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.org/about/ and www.mayoclinic.org/news
Mayo Clinic researchers tie Parkinson's drugs to impulse control problems
2011-03-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Religious young adults become obese by middle age
2011-03-25
CHICAGO --- Could it be the potato salad? Young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age as young adults with no religious involvement, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. This is the first longitudinal study to examine the development of obesity in people with various degrees of religious involvement.
"We don't know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity ...
Acupuncture for pain no better than placebo and not without harm
2011-03-25
Philadelphia, PA, March 23, 2011 – Although acupuncture is commonly used for pain control, doubts about its effectiveness and safety remain. Investigators from the Universities of Exeter & Plymouth (Exeter, UK) and the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (Daejeon, South Korea) critically evaluated systematic reviews of acupuncture as a treatment of pain in order to explore this question. Reporting in the April 2011 issue of PAIN®, they conclude that numerous systematic reviews have generated little truly convincing evidence that acupuncture is effective in reducing pain, ...
Measurements of winter Arctic sea ice shows continuing ice loss, says CU-Boulder study
2011-03-25
The 2011 Arctic sea ice extent maximum that marks the beginning of the melt season appears to be tied for the lowest ever measured by satellites, say scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The CU-Boulder research team believes the lowest annual maximum ice extent of 5,650,000 square miles occurred on March 7. The maximum ice extent was 463,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average, an area slightly larger than the states of Texas and California combined. The 2011 measurements were tied with those from 2006 as the lowest ...
An ancestral link between genetic and environmental sex determination
2011-03-25
Researchers from Osaka University and the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan, have found a highly significant connection between the molecular mechanisms underlying genetic and environmental sex determination. The scientists report in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics the identification of a gene responsible for the production of males during environmental sex determination in the crustacean Daphnia.
Ways in which an individual organism's sex is determined are diverse among animal lineages and can be broadly divided into two major categories: genetic and ...
Not so sweet: Increased added sugars intake parallels trends in weight gain
2011-03-25
Weight gain in adults coincided with increased consumption of added sugars, in a study reported today at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions. Added sugars are sugars and syrups added to foods during processing, preparation, or at the table.
Researchers reviewed added sugars intake and patterns of body weight over 27 years using data collected in the Minnesota Heart Survey, a surveillance study of adults ages 25 to 74 living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan ...
Tourettes brains are structured for greater, not lesser, cognitive motor control
2011-03-25
Contrary to intuition, people who suffer from the motor and vocal tics characteristic of Tourette syndrome actually perform behavioral tests of cognitive motor control more accurately and quickly than their typically developing peers do. According to evidence reported online on March 24 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that enhanced control arises from structural and functional changes in the brain that likely come about from the need to constantly suppress tics.
"The motor outputs of children with Tourette syndrome are under greater cognitive control," ...
Artifacts in Texas predate Clovis culture by 2,500 years, new study shows
2011-03-25
Researchers in Texas have discovered thousands of human artifacts in a layer of earth that lies directly beneath an assemblage of Clovis relics, expanding evidence that other cultures preceded the Clovis culture in North America. This pre-Clovis toolkit appears to be between 13,200 and 15,500 years old and it includes biface and blade technology that may have later been adapted—and improved upon—by the Clovis culture.
The Clovis people, whose tools were known for their distinctive "fluted" points, were once thought to be the original settlers of North America about 13,000 ...
JackpotCapital.com Online Slots Player Has Incredible $139,957 Winning Streak
2011-03-25
Most regular online slots players have their good nights when they get lucky and have a fun winning streak. But, to win $10,000 or more on every game you try is every online casino player's dream. This dream came true at JackpotCapital.com last week when one lucky player tried six online slot machines during a two-day period and walked away with a total of $139,957.77 in winnings.
"I had played Aladdin's Wishes before. In fact, I had a bit of luck on it last time I played so I started there. I couldn't believe it when I won $29,305!" said the winner from the undisclosed ...
Paleo-Indians settled North America earlier than thought, study suggests
2011-03-25
Researchers excavating a creek bed in central Texas have found evidence suggesting humans settled in North America some two thousand years earlier than previously estimated.
The findings are reported in the March 25 issue of Science.
Earth scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago determined the age using an optical dating technique. They linked sediment and mineral samples to human artifacts and tools found in a single stratigraphic layer located below younger, previously dated Paleo-Indian Clovis-culture artifacts.
Texas A&M University anthropologist Michael ...
Penn researchers uncover novel immune therapy for pancreatic cancer
2011-03-25
PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center have discovered a novel way of treating pancreatic cancer by activating the immune system to destroy the cancer's scaffolding. The strategy was tested in a small cohort of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, several of whose tumors shrank substantially. The team believes their findings – and the novel way in which they uncovered them -- could lead to quicker, less expensive cancer drug development.
The authors call the results, published in the March 25 issue of Science, a big ...