Sex Life

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:39 am Post subject: Sex Life

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I know a 65 years old parkinson's patient who developed hypersexuality after he was treated with Pramipexole, a dopamine agonist. For the first time in his life, he slept naked. He had sex every night which was something unusal for him.

His behavious has also changed. He has become obsessed with his personnel look - he went to facial and body message regualarly, and bought new clothes to feel young at heart. Whenever he went out to town, he enjoyed staring at beautiful girls.

Are these symptoms the sideeffect of Pramipexole ? I heard that dopamine agonists have been linked to extreme behaviour such as hypersexuality

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Dr. Fernandez



Joined: 20 Jan 2007
Posts: 90

Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 10:55 am Post subject:

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Yes, this is most likely a side effect of pramipexole. Having said that, there are a few things that I need to mention:

1) All PD drugs can cause this, except it occurs in higher prevalence with dopamine agonists (such as pramipexole) compared to the class of PD drugs.

2) This is a rare side effect (less than 8 percent will experience this).

3) The effect goes away almost immediately if you discontinue the medication.

So, the most important thing is not to avoid the medication (as it really is a good drug for most patients), but to be aware of the potential side effects and to immediately inform your doctor if this occurs.

Yours,
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