Are my husband's new addictive behaviors related to his Parkinson's medication?

A fellow caregiver asked...

My husband has parkinson and I think he has developed an addiction to the local strip clubs.His personality has changed and he lies alot about his activities out side of our home. I understand that the medicine can sometimes cause a person to have such addictions. He is in denial about his problems and blames me for everything wrong in our marriage. We have been together 19 years and married 7 years. I married him knowing he had this diease The

Expert Answer

Graham A. Glass, MD, is the co-founder of PEAK Neurology and Sleep Medicine, LLC with multiple locations across Alaska. Previously, he was deputy director of the San Francisco Parkinson's Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Care Center PADRECC and assistant clinical professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Glass received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at the San Antonio School of Medicine and completed his neurology residency at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He subsequently completed a fellowship in movement disorders at the Mayo Clinic.

Addictive and compulsive behaviors have been linked to some Parkinson's disease medications and we often reduce medications or alter medication regimens when we hear of this type of behavior. The "bad actors" in this regard are the dopamine agonists such as ropinirole and pramipexole (Requip and Mirapex). That being said, more literature seems to be showing that some patients with PD (up to 25%) may develop some degree of compulsive behaviors despite medication becuase Parkinson's can affect those areas of the brain. Typically, our approach is to titrate off of the potentially contributing medication while trying to control the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease with other medications. If this is not effective, sometimes adding other medications such as quetiapine can be helpful, although its always important to try to remove medications that may be causing this first.