The source of this article is NBC12, Birmingham, AL: http://tinyurl.com/4ytkn

Parkinson's Drug Linked To Compulsive Behavior
Lawsuit Seeks Reparations, Warning Labels

UPDATED: 2:09 pm EST February 11, 2005

MILLERSVILLE, Md. -- There are claims that a widely prescribed medication
for Parkinson's disease drove some patients to compulsive behavior such as
sex, gambling, eating and shopping -- behavior that destroyed personal and
professional lives.

Joe Neglia, 53, of Millersville, walks with an uneven gait as a result of
Parkinson's disease, which was diagnosed in 1994, reported WBAL-TV in
Baltimore.

"The stiffness in the left leg and the hand were a dead giveaway," Neglia said.


As his symptoms progressed with no cure in sight, Neglia's doctor suggested
a new drug to try.

Mirapex mimics dopamine, a chemical in the brain that allows for smooth,
fluid body movements. Like all Parkinson's disease patients, Neglia's body
doesn't have enough dopamine, and Mirapex worked.

"It is a helpful drug," Neglia said. "I could move around better, more
fluid, not as jerky."

Mirapex, or pramipexole as it is known generically, is manufactured by
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Neglia started the drug in late 1998. At the maximum dose of 4.5 milligrams,
his brain was racing, and he developed some obsessive-compulsive behavior.

"I could not drive past a McDonald's to save my life," he said. "I would eat
voraciously, constantly. I couldn't understand why I'd never been like that
before."

Neglia gained 50 pounds, but something even more frightening was happening
to him, something no one knew about.

"It turned into the most horrible god-awful obsession -- gambling," he said.

At the time, Neglia lived in California. He discovered he lived within 20
minutes of three casinos. He would go there to gamble three to four times a
day -- sitting transfixed in front of a slot machine until the money was gone.

"I couldn't understand what was happening to me," he said. "I totally lost
control of myself."

Neglia said he had always been an organized, thoughtful man, but now his
life was quickly disintegrating and he had no idea why.

In August 2003, Neglia was online and found a news headline that nearly
knocked him out of his chair.

"A news headline jumped out at me," he said. "Parkinson's drug linked to
obsessive gambling."

More research led to more stories of people on Mirapex who developed
obsessive-compulsive behaviors -- wrecked marriages, attempted suicide,
ruined professional lives.

Neglia is now part of a multi-plaintiff lawsuit in California, being handled
by attorneys Soheila Azizi and Daniel Kodam. They are seeking reparations
and warning labels on Mirapex. They said patients didn't know to ask their
doctors about what was happening to them.

Dr. William Weiner is the chairman of neurology at the University of
Maryland Medical System. He believes the side effects do exist but are
extremely rare and that Mirapex is a valuable drug for hundreds of thousands
of people.

Should doctors warn patients?

"To make people worried about every single rare occurrence that happens in a
whole population of people taking a drug is just not something that
physicians do," Weiner said.

In a written statement, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals claimed "there
is no scientific evidence of a causal effect between Pramipexole and
compulsive behavior." However, the drug manufacturer also said it recently
included compulsive behaviors as a possible adverse reaction in the drug's
insert.

Neglia's attorneys said it's a good start, but not enough. Warning people
who take Mirapex is exactly what Neglia believes needs to be done.

"If there had been a 2-cent warning label on the bottle, 'Stop in case of
compulsive behavior,' it would have saved me a lot of hell," Neglia said.

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