Patients to sue drugs company over gambling addiction
26th November, 2007
Patients to sue drugs company over gambling addiction
Two Parkinson disease sufferers are to sue the UK distributor of a drug which they were prescribed to because they were not warned that the drug can cause compulsive gambling behaviour. The two patients claim the thousands they have lost on gambling is down to the company.
One of the patients was prescribed the drug in 2003, and soon after began gambling up to £100,00 a day, apparently losing over £100,000 in total. His brother became worried about his behaviour and did some research into the subject, before finding the link between the drug and the gambling compulsion. The drugs are known to trigger possible side effects such as sleep disorders and compulsive behaviour. The patient stopped taking the drugs soon after and found that his gambling urge was gone.
After looking to sue the distributors, the patients’ lawyer said: “Our main argument is that the drugs are defective under the Consumer Protection Act. Had there been warning my clients wouldn’t have suffered the losses they did”.
Another sufferer of the degenerative disease had her drugs prescription changed after doctors found deep vein thrombosis, and soon after she realised that her urge to gamble had subsided.
A man in France recently won the right to compensation after losing £90,000 due to a gambling addiction, also blamed the drugs.
