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Increased risk for developing gambling disorder under the treatment with pramipexole, ropinirole, and aripiprazole : A nationwide register study in Sweden

Wolfschlag, Mirjam LU and Håkansson, Anders (2021) In PLoS ONE 16(6 June).
Abstract

Gambling Disorder (GD) has recently been reclassified from an impulse-control disorder to a behavioural addiction and, as in other addictive disorders, the dopaminergic reward system is involved. According to neuroimaging studies, alterations within the striatal dopaminergic signalling can occur in GD. However, the findings to date are controversial and there has been no agreement yet on how the reward system is affected on a molecular basis. Within the last 20 years, there has been growing evidence for a higher risk to develop GD in response to certain dopaminergic medication. Especially the dopamine agonists pramipexole and ropinirole, and the dopamine modulator aripiprazole seem to increase the likelihood for GD. The goal of this... (More)

Gambling Disorder (GD) has recently been reclassified from an impulse-control disorder to a behavioural addiction and, as in other addictive disorders, the dopaminergic reward system is involved. According to neuroimaging studies, alterations within the striatal dopaminergic signalling can occur in GD. However, the findings to date are controversial and there has been no agreement yet on how the reward system is affected on a molecular basis. Within the last 20 years, there has been growing evidence for a higher risk to develop GD in response to certain dopaminergic medication. Especially the dopamine agonists pramipexole and ropinirole, and the dopamine modulator aripiprazole seem to increase the likelihood for GD. The goal of this study was to examine the association between a prescription for either of the three pharmaceuticals and a GD diagnosis in a large cross-sectional study of the Swedish population. Compared to patients with any other dopaminergic drug prescription (38.7% with GD), the diagnosis was more common in patients with a dopamine agonist prescription (69.8% with GD), resulting in an odds ratio of 3.2. A similar association was found between aripiprazole prescriptions and GD diagnoses, which were analysed within the subgroup of all patients with schizophrenia or a schizotypal, delusional, or another nonmood psychotic disorder. An aripiprazole prescription increased the likelihood of GD (88.8%) in comparison to patients without an aripiprazole prescription (71.2%) with an odds ratio of 3.4. This study contributes to the increasingly reliable evidence for an association between several dopaminergic drugs and a higher risk for developing GD. Therefore, one future research goal should be a better understanding of the neurobiology in GD to be able to design more selective dopaminergic medication with less severe side effects. Additionally, this knowledge could enable the development of pharmacotherapy in GD and other addictive disorders.

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Contribution to journal
publication status
published
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in
PLoS ONE
volume
16
issue
6 June
article number
e0252516
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:34061895
  • scopus:85106985326
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0252516
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ff00629b-743c-423d-b369-fd9e20dc1e11
date added to LUP
2022-03-09 16:42:08
date last changed
2024-04-18 06:19:27
@article{ff00629b-743c-423d-b369-fd9e20dc1e11,
  abstract     = {{<p>Gambling Disorder (GD) has recently been reclassified from an impulse-control disorder to a behavioural addiction and, as in other addictive disorders, the dopaminergic reward system is involved. According to neuroimaging studies, alterations within the striatal dopaminergic signalling can occur in GD. However, the findings to date are controversial and there has been no agreement yet on how the reward system is affected on a molecular basis. Within the last 20 years, there has been growing evidence for a higher risk to develop GD in response to certain dopaminergic medication. Especially the dopamine agonists pramipexole and ropinirole, and the dopamine modulator aripiprazole seem to increase the likelihood for GD. The goal of this study was to examine the association between a prescription for either of the three pharmaceuticals and a GD diagnosis in a large cross-sectional study of the Swedish population. Compared to patients with any other dopaminergic drug prescription (38.7% with GD), the diagnosis was more common in patients with a dopamine agonist prescription (69.8% with GD), resulting in an odds ratio of 3.2. A similar association was found between aripiprazole prescriptions and GD diagnoses, which were analysed within the subgroup of all patients with schizophrenia or a schizotypal, delusional, or another nonmood psychotic disorder. An aripiprazole prescription increased the likelihood of GD (88.8%) in comparison to patients without an aripiprazole prescription (71.2%) with an odds ratio of 3.4. This study contributes to the increasingly reliable evidence for an association between several dopaminergic drugs and a higher risk for developing GD. Therefore, one future research goal should be a better understanding of the neurobiology in GD to be able to design more selective dopaminergic medication with less severe side effects. Additionally, this knowledge could enable the development of pharmacotherapy in GD and other addictive disorders.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wolfschlag, Mirjam and Håkansson, Anders}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6 June}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{Increased risk for developing gambling disorder under the treatment with pramipexole, ropinirole, and aripiprazole : A nationwide register study in Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252516}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0252516}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}