I know of one such drug that already exists: Alcoholic Beverages

The differences are 1) the whole medically necessary aspect and 2) the actual feeling of inebriation. It's one thing to feel messed up and therefore act messed up. It's another thing to feel otherwise normal but find yourself with a major shift in personality.

From what I know of parkinsons, dopamine (or lack thereof) is a prime agent in the disease. It also happens to be a prime agent in addictive, compulsive, and risky behaviors. Knowing those to things, and confirming that Requip, or ropinirole, the drug in question, acts as a dopamine replacement), the guy's story is not difficult to believe.

There was a Radiolab story about a woman who had never gambled in her whole life, but after being put on a dopamine replacement completely bankrupted herself gambling.

This could get pricey for the drug companies.

That was a very good episode of Radiolab.

How common is that? I have trouble with punitive damages against the drug companies for rare instances of adverse reactions. Unlike cases like Provasic where they knew damn well the stuff was dangerous and sold it anyway.

I don't know how common it is, but one of the important details of this case is that the plaintiff was prescribed the drug in 2005. In 2006, the company started affixing warnings about such side effects to the drug. The claim, I would guess, is that they knew about the side effects in 2005.

It's kind of depressing that this thread never seems to run out of topics.

Woman tries to mail puppy via USPS priority mail.

I find it highly disturbing they're even THINKing about giving her the dog back. (though I imagine the law requires it) That SHPoS needs to be banned from owning animals forever!

I was once in line at the Post Office behind a man who wanted to mail a chicken to Mexico.