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November 1, 2007 Medicine sparked gambling addiction Adam Sage PARIS A Parkinson’s disease sufferer won a groundbreaking ruling giving him compensation rights after he lost €130,000 (£90,000) from a gambling addiction which he blamed on his medication. Didier Jambart, 47, from Nantes, western France, is demanding €400,000 in damages after a tribunal backed his case. He is among an estimated 14 per cent of patients who develop compulsive or obsessive behaviour when given dopaminergic agonists for Parkinson’s disease. Mr Jambart, formerly a senior civil servant in the French Defence Ministry, said that when he was treated by a neurologist in 2003 the drug seemed to work. But as the doses were increased, he developed a gambling compulsion that lost him up to €10,000 a month, until he was given a different treatment. He said: “I couldn’t understand what was happening and I tried to commit suicide several times.” The pharmaceutical group – which cannot be named – will pay 80 per cent of the sum owed to Mr Jambart, and the neurologist the rest. The level of the damages will be fixed later this month. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn