Pathological Gambling in Parkinson's disease patients: Dopaminergic medication or personality traits fault?

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are clinically relevant in Parkinson disease (PD) patients, with an established association with PD medication. Aim of our study was to study whether the increased frequency of pathological gambling (PG), reported in subgroups of PD patients, is related to specific personality tracts additional to dopaminergic medications. Thirty-seven PD patients with a personal history of PG where enrolled. Twenty one PD patients, matched for disease and dopaminergic therapy, never experiencing PG, were enrolled as controls. All subjects were tested with the Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory Personality scales (MMPI-2). Our data showed that PD group with PG exhibited significantly higher mean values of the three validity scales in comparison to the non-PG-PD group, demonstrating an higher tendency to lie. Content scales showed a significant increase of cynicism and bizarre ideation scales score in the PG-PD group, not exhibiting pathological values at the validity scales, (p: 0.02) in comparison to non-PG PD patients. According to our results, PG seems to be associated with precise personality tracts. Personality profiles of cluster A personality disturbances - Axys 2 according with DSM-5 TR (paranoid type) at MMPI-2 might be a warning index helpful in selecting dopaminergic treatment, to avoid subsequent ICDs appearance.