Parkinson’s drugs wrecked our lives

WHEN Mark Robson and his newlywed wife Samantha were dropped the bombshell that he had Parkinson’s Disease, the future looked uncertain.

The Royton couple stoically decided they would take what life had thrown at them and make the best of it.

But they hadn’t bargained on the devastating effects of a drug which was supposed to help Mark, but which they now believe was responsible for destroying their marriage.

Now divorced from Mark, his former wife Samantha, told her story to reporter Marina Berry.

Samantha still lives in the home she shared with the man she called her “soul mate” in Rochdale Road.

But tday the house is saddled with an almost unbearable level of debt — the legacy, she says, of the side effects of her husband’s prescribed drugs.



Mark (53), and Samantha, (42), met in 1994 and married just seven months later at Gretna Green after a whirlwind romance.

Three years on, Mark developed what he thought was a trapped nerve in his arm, but tests revealed he had Parkinson’s Disease, an incurable and progressive condition with symptoms doctors said they could keep at bay with a cocktail of drugs.

He was just 42.

Mark was a “computer whizz,” recalled Samantha. “He was brilliant.”

Struggling to come to terms with his illness, he kept it hidden for two years from colleagues at British Aerospace, where he worked in computer engineer management.

But as his co-ordination worsened, he could no longer carry out intricate work, and he had to give up his job.

His wife was setting up her own business, managing psychics for a Sky interactive channel, and Mark handled her finances.

“He had access to my bank accounts, and I just left him to it because I was busy travelling up and down from London and I trusted him — he was my husband,” said Samantha.

“When I got the contract, we had Sky TV installed. It had interactive gambling, and Mark used to have a 60p or a £1 bet.

“He never was a gambler, he never went to the bookies — the only time he bet money was on the Grand National, which we all did as a family.

“He was enjoying it, so I didn’t see any harm, and he seemed to be winning more than he was losing.

“Then I discovered he was moving money around our bank accounts, credit cards were coming through the door and he would act strangely, not sleeping and waiting for the post to come.

“One morning he sat on the bed and said he had lost a lot of money.

“He said he was gambling and didn’t know why he was doing it and he couldn’t help it.

“I pleaded for him to get help, Mark told me he had been to a meeting of Gamblers Anonymous but he never went.

“He stayed out all night — he had never done that before, and took money from the house, and eventually I told him I couldn’t carry on, it was like a living nightmare.”

In total, Mark lost more than £200,000, and the couple’s fortunes spiralled so drastically Samantha had to declare herself bankrupt.

The couple put Mark’s gambling compulsion down to pergolide, the generic name for a class of drug prescribed as a muscle relaxant for Parkinson’s Disease.

“His mood and personality changed. He became compulsive and erratic and controlling, he became very withdrawn,” recalled Samantha.

Mark’s story is just one of a number of cases both in Britain and in America, where people taking drugs known as dopamine agonists have reportedly undergone startling personality changes and developed obsessions.

Samantha’s reason for speaking out is to warn other people about the possible side effects — which she blames for wrecking her marriage.

She kept hold of their home by the skin of her teeth, although she now has a mortgage she is struggling to pay, and is unable to get credit or a bank account because she is a bad debtor.

“We borrowed money off the house to pay off Mark’s gambling debts. He said he wouldn’t do it again, but he did,” said Samantha.

“Not long after he left he walked into hospital and asked for help. He stayed on the psychiatric unit for several weeks, where he got counselling.

“I went to see him with my daughter, Jessica (now 18).”

Struggling to fight back tears, an emotional Samantha added: “It was almost like it used to be, Jessica used to get him 10p surprise bags from the shop — he liked that — and he had one on his bed.

“But so much had happened between us there was no way back.”

The Parkinson’s Disease Society is funding a £640,000 research project into compulsive behaviours linked to some drugs.

It says compulsive behaviour such as extreme reliance on medication, an uncontrollable addiction to gambling, sex, shopping and binge eating could affect up to 14 per cent of people with Parkinson’s taking the drugs to manage their symptoms.

Mark now lives in Fleetwood with his father, and is among a group of people for whom solicitor, Paul Balen of Freeth Cartwright, is acting in a compensation claim against a number of drugs companies.