Pergolide by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Pergolide is a dopamine agonist. Pergolide works by acting in place of dopamine, a natural substance in the brain that is needed to control movement.  As of April, 2007, the Parkinson's disease drug pergolide will no longer be available on the U.S. market because of potential damage to heart valves. The dopamine agonist, was sold by Eli Lilly and Co. under the name Permax,

Pergolide side effects
Case reports and echocardiographic studies suggest that the ergot-derived dopamine agonist pergolide, used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and restless legs syndrome, may increase the risk of cardiac-valve regurgitation.

Sexual effect of pergolide
Hypersexual behaviour, frotteurism and delusional jealousy in a young parkinsonian patient during dopaminergic therapy with pergolide: A rare case of iatrogenic paraphilia.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Dec 30;30(8):1539-41. Centro per i Disordini del Movimento, Dipartimento di Scienze Cardiovascolari e Neurologiche, Sezione Neurologia, University of Cagliari, Italy.
Neuropsychological and psychopathological modifications induced by dopaminergic drugs in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are invariably not taken into sufficient consideration by the neurologist. Among the former, modifications of sexual urges and behaviours are of particular importance with regard to severity and variety of clinical pictures. Although rare, such modifications may assume the connotations of an aberrant sexual behaviour with criminal implications, in line with a diagnosis of paraphilia. The authors report the case of a 51-year-old male PD patient who, after a few years of dopaminergic treatment with pergolide, developed a paraphilic disorder, consistent with DSM-IV TR diagnosis of frotteurism, and delusional jealousy. The patient presented mild motor impairment and lack of or negligible cognitive deterioration, thus providing evidence that these disorders are not typical of advanced PD. Pergolide was reduced and quetiapine, an atypical neuroleptic, was introduced with subsequent subsiding of the paraphilic disorder and improvement of delusional jealousy.