Parkinson’s medication side effects
November 30th 2010 02:37
The treatment of Parkinson’s disease can create some brutal side-effects, something police, social workers and judges are well aware of.
The public, however, generally is not aware that this disease is so difficult to treat. One reason is that it is hard to explain that the drugs generally used to treat Parkinson’s can have a range of completely unpredictable effects.
A report just published in the UK will go a long way to publicising the issue. What careful technical explanations can not achieve, graphic example can.
The story does not take long to grab the attention of the reader: A British IT worker and local councillor turned into a “sex-crazed, gambling transvestite''
due to the side-effects of the Parkinson's drug Cabergoline, a dopomine agent.
Pete Shepherd, 60, spent 400,000 pounds over seven years on cars, prostitutes, gambling and women’s and fetish clothing.
“I suffered from delusions of grandeur, exhibitionism, paranoia and hallucinations and became violent and suicidal,” he said.
Shepherd maxed-out 15 credit cards and lost his wife and his job.
He ran out of money and tried crime – a 50,000-pound ticketing fraud through eBay.
Shepherd was caught, charged with fraud, and sent to court, where he pleaded not guilty, his lawyers claiming that the Parkinson’s medication was to blame.
This, one may think, is something a judge may have heard before, but the supporting evidence which followed was compelling. Two Professors of Neurology spoke on Shepherd’s behalf, testifying the drugs had taken over his mind making him unable to know right from wrong.
The judge accepted the evidence, telling Shepherd that responsibility for his actions had been “very substantially” reduced by the side-effects of the drug. He gave the defendant a conditional discharge.
Shepherd now takes a different medication to treat his Parkinson's disease. He no longer has a house or savings, but neither does he have a compulsive desire for gambling, sex and women’s clothing.
The charity Parkinson’s UK supports the decision. Its chief of research, Dr Kieran Breen, said: “At least 14 per cent of people on these medications may experience problems with compulsive behaviours.”
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