Pathological gambling in Parkinson Disease: element diagnosis or consequence of the treatment?

Abstract

Introduction: Parkinson's disease is a progressive and neurodegenerative disorder that affects the dopaminergic nigroestriatal system. Pathological gambling can be described as a recurrent attitude of betting on these games despite the negative consequences resulting from this activity. Objective: The objective of this literature revision is to investigate the incidence of the use of dopaminergic agonists and the development of pathological gambling in patients with Parkinson Disease. Materials and Methods: We performed a literature review on the proposed theme, addressing the drugs aspects and their benefits. Results: The results fail to directly associate the incidence of pathological gambling to the use of dopamine agonists. However, a possible association has been increasingly frequent and described in specialized literature. Conclusion: We conclude that further studies are needed to understand the molecular and biochemical factors underlying the behavioral characteristics seen in the pathological gambling and in other impulse control disorders.