[Pathological gambling in patients with Parkinson disease]

Pathological gambling implies an inadequate, persistent and chronic practice of gambling which has major impact on affected individuals, their families and the society (APA, 2003). Many risk factors of social, psychological and biological nature contribute to the development of pathological gambling. New populations have been found to be at risk to develop pathological gambling : patients who suffer of Parkinson Disease's. Development of pathological gambling in those patients would mainly be related to the medication used to treat Parkinson Disease's, dopaminergic agonist. Numerous neurological studies have been conducted on the subject since recent years, but few psychologists know this problem and almost no studies have been made to understand the psychological aspect of this problem.