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Mack, many thanks for your detective work. The truth is a very elusive commodity these days and I'm glad this one issue can be discussed on the List. Keep up the good work! Ray ----- Original Message ----- From: "mackenzie" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 12:50 AM Subject: DAs & Gambling: The Non-Story, Part I The first study claiming it had found an association between dopamine agonists and gambling was published in 2003 - the lead author was Dr. Mark Stacy. The incidence found among those on Mirapex was 1.5% (8 out of 529) - Stacy cites the incidence in the general populatiion as 0.3-1.3% (he does not say where he got that number.) Here is what those numbers mean - nothing - and here is why. Given an incidence of gambling of 8 out of 529 mirapex takers, and given an estimated incidence in the general population of 0.3-1.3%, one would have to find an incidence of 1.85 or fewer people in a group of 529 from the general population for there to be a statistically significant difference between the two incidences. (if my calculations are correct.) If one then takes into account things like the fact that there are many different estimates of the incidence in the general pop and two that i have read are even higher than that cited by Stacy; the study data came from a retirement area in which there are a lot of casinos; half of the eight Mirapex gamblers had a history of depression; and the fact that every single one of those people was also on sinemet, and what you have is a big, fat zero of a study. i emailed Dr. Stacy pointing out the obvious weaknesses and asking him how he could in good conscience have published/publicized such a study. He responded that he was pretty much in agreement with me regarding the thin-ness of the association and pointed out that he had been quoted saying that he did not think prescribing practices should change as a result of this study. And yet either Barrow or the Mayo Clinic sent it to Reuters. i asked Dr. Stacy why. He said "I cannot answer that." Stay tuned to hear about the 2005 study. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn