Faced with the sudden side effects, two patients with Parkinson’s disease pursue the GSK laboratory in justice. The medication Requip triggered addictive behaviors and notably sexual impulses in them.
- Parkinson’s disease against addictive behavior.
- Sexual impulses, violence or addiction to online games: many patients report serious side effects.
- Two French patients decided to continue the GSK laboratory, a manufacturer of treatment, in court.
Their treatment has turned their lives upside down. Two French patients with Parkinson’s disease attack the GSK laboratory in justice. Both were taking a requip to relieve the symptoms of their pathology. The drug, of the dopaminergic agonist family, has triggered serious addictions, to games or sex, as the investigation cell of Radioffrance.
Parkinson’s disease: addictive behavior linked to the drug
“”This period of the compulsive game intervened on the period of the covid and suddenly, there was no longer any sporting competition put online, tells Stéphane Grange to Radioffrance. All the football championships were suspended, except the Belarusian championship. At 5 a.m. in my kitchen, I therefore bet on Belarusian matches. This is the kind of absurd situation in which we are when we are under the influence of such a compulsion. “ This fifties had never played before taking the treatment: in just two years, it spends more than 40,000 euros on online bets. He also suffered from sexual impulses. “”I asked for my partner to have sex every day, he confides. She lived it badly, too because she pushed me back, and she was right. “ Some time later, he dares to talk about these symptoms to his neurologist. “”She directly makes the link between the Requip, her medication, and these impulse control disorders, underlines Radioffrance. It decreases the doses gradually to limit withdrawal syndrome and anxiety which can occur when you stop treatment, as the latter must not be stopped brutally and without medical control. Gradually, his obsessions disappear. “Because the treatment manual evokes these symptoms. It indicates that”Addiction in games of money, compulsive purchases and hypersexuality have been reported under dopaminergic treatment, especially when using high doses “, But without specifying the frequency.
A medical study confirms the side effects of this treatment against Parkinson’s disease
However, according to the numerous testimonies collected by Radiofrance, These symptoms seem frequent. This echoes a study published in 2018, in Neurology. Jean-Christophe Corvol, professor of neurology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and his team presented the results of a vast study on this medication. According to their conclusions, one in two patients develops impulse control disorders within five years of the start of dopaminergic agonists. “I am not instead of laboratories but we could at least report the figures of certain studies to inform the population well”says Professor Corvol on public radio.
Parkinson and side effects: legal actions against the GSK laboratory
In February 2024, Stéphane Grange launched legal proceedings against the GSK laboratory. The trial is to take place next November. In parallel, another patient decided to attack the laboratory because of the side effects of this treatment. Both hope that justice will recognize the responsibility of the laboratory.
