-August 4, 2005: For Immediate Release-

Suit Alleges Parkinson’s Drug Causes Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors 

            Welch and Kitchens, LLC and The Law Offices of Darren O’Quinn have filed a law suit on behalf of Shelia Elrod, 49, a resident of Little Rock alleging that the drug Mirapex, marketed by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and other companies causes destructive obsessive compulsive behaviors including gambling in persons not otherwise predisposed to engage in those behaviors. 

A series of studies indicate that Mirapex [pramipexole] and other drugs in a class of drugs known as “dopamine agonists” caused such obsessive-compulsive behaviors.  In 2002-03, a study at the prestigious Mohamed Ali Center for Parkinson’s Research in Arizona concluded that the drug likely caused such obsessive compulsive gambling in a significant number of patients. That study was published in the journal Neurology in 2003. In July 2005, a Mayo clinic study reached similar conclusions.

While denying any connection to the drug, Pfizer changed its package insert in 2005 to include the ‘slight risk’ of patients developing compulsive behaviors such as gambling.

In the lawsuit filed in Pulaski Circuit Court on Thursday, Ms. Elrod alleges that before being prescribed Mirapex by her physician, she had not been a compulsive gambler and had had very limited exposure to gambling at all for less than $50, total.  Ms. Elrod says that her dosages after being raised above a certain limit caused her to surreptitiously engage in gambling behaviors that cost her and her family over $400,000 in a period of less than 18 months. 

            Once the drug was discontinued, all gambling behavior ceased, the suit said.  Morgan E. “Chip” Welch of Welch and Kitchens and Darren O’Quinn of the O’Quinn Law Firm, lawyers for Elrod, stated that the pharmaceutical companies were aware of statistically significant instances of patients suffering obsessive compulsive gambling and had a duty to warn patients of the dangers associated with the drug.

            For further information or a copy of the complaint, contact Morgan E. “Chip” Welch at 501-978-3030.