20-Jun-08. Parkinson’s drug likely triggering gambling addiction, study finds. National Post, A3.

A recent article in the Journal of Gambling Studies recommends that all Parkinson’s patients now be screened for possible gambling problems, and monitored through the course of their treatment. Dr. David Crockford and his colleagues recruited 140 Parkinson’s patients aged 44 to 88 in three Alberta centres and assessed them for gambling addiction using standard tests. They concluded that 3.6% were problem gamblers and 5.7% pathological gamblers. The 9.3% total compares with a rate of about 1.6% among similarly aged people in the general population.