What are impulse control disorders in Parkinson’s disease (PD)?
DW: In Parkinson’s, the term “impulse control disorders,” or ICDs, is commonly used to refer to a group of behaviors — gambling, shopping, eating and sexual behaviors — that are compulsive or impulsive in nature. While pathological gambling has been the main focus in PD, our report and other scientists have now demonstrated that all four are relatively common. N&R: How common are ICDs among people with Parkinson’s? DW: Our study demonstrated that, when measuring at one point in time, about 14 percent of people with PD experience one or more of the four behaviors mentioned above. We believe the true prevalence for these behaviors occurring anytime during PD may be higher — my personal guess is that it’s between 15 and 20 percent. Additionally, we found that if a person experienced one ICD, he or she had a 25–30 percent chance of experiencing two or more. When we compared men and women, we found that both groups experience ICDs generally and compulsive gambling at similar rates. However,
