‘It’s ruined my life’: Hundreds tell BBC how medication triggered gambling and other addictions
7 minutes agoNoel TitheradgeInvestigations correspondent
BBCEmma couldn’t understand why she had suddenly developed a gambling problem, until she read a recent BBC News article.
Over the course of the past year, she had lost tens of thousands of pounds – but had never imagined that her medication might be responsible.
Emma is one of more than 250 people who have now contacted us about addictions – gambling, but also sex and shopping – caused by a family of drugs prescribed for movement disorders.
Those who got in touch include people with responsible jobs – a police officer, nurses, doctors, and even a director of risk for a bank.
Nearly a year after we first reported the ruinous consequences of such impulsive behaviours, many patients say doctors are still failing to properly warn them about the side effects of dopamine agonist drugs – or how common they are.
Despite the drugs having recently been downgraded as a first-line treatment for Restless Legs Syndrome, there has been no impact on GP prescription levels in England.
Last week, the chair of the MPs’ Health Select Committee asked the UK drug regulator to review warnings about these side effects, and the government called our latest findings “hugely concerning”.
‘It’s ruined my life’
Like many women, Emma first developed Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) during pregnancy – the condition is thought to be linked to levels of iron.
After her symptoms worsened over the next few years, she was prescribed Ropinirole – a drug manufactured by British pharmaceutical firm GSK.
Emma says she began compulsively gambling and buying frivolous things, leaving her feeling like there was something “that’s controlling me”.
She says she only discovered the link with her medication when her husband researched her drugs and found one of our stories.
“I read it and went, ‘Oh my God – that’s me’,” she says.
When she books an appointment at her local GP surgery, Emma says she is required to fill in an online form where she must list any medication she is taking.
But despite stating she had developed a gambling addiction – and was taking Ropinirole – Emma says her doctor never connected her behaviour with the drug’s known side effects.
Instead, Emma continued to gamble and – later, after reading our reports – requested to have her medication changed. She says she has lost at least £30,000.
“It’s ruined my life – we’re going to be in debt for God knows how long paying it off,” she says.
The medication works by boosting dopamine activity. It is part of a family of drugs which, in addition to GSK, was also developed by two other manufacturers.
Dopamine is a chemical that helps regulate movement but also plays a key role in motivation and reward, which can be overstimulated by these medications.
People across the UK have told us how impulsive behaviour side effects have led to huge debts, broken marriages, criminality and suicide.
We have also heard of patients binge eating, cross-dressing and recklessly investing – and others who pursued homosexual relationships for the first time.
Another recurring theme is older women reporting that their husbands of many decades have become sexually coercive.
Typically, users had no history of such behaviours and neither they, nor their families, realised they could be caused by their medication.
With about one in six Parkinson’s patients on the drugs affected by impulsive behaviour of some kind, the side effects would be classed as “very common”.
But this prevalence is not stated in leaflets, which have also been repeatedly criticised for only describing impulsive behaviours broadly – and not the specific types of actions they can lead to, such as pornography addiction.
Last week, we published the story of a family where the son and father took their own lives, after the father’s impulsive behaviour led him to steal £600,000 from his clients to pay for sex and antiques.
More men have since got in touch to say they recognise this reported behaviour as their own – and are currently experiencing such hypersexuality.
Family handoutMichael, whose name we have changed, recently began using sex workers after being prescribed these drugs for Restless Legs Syndrome.
“I think I’m obsessed with sex,” he says, adding that he has now slept with about 20 men and women, despite being married. Previously, he never cheated on his wife or had any homosexual encounters, he says.
Like others I have spoken to, he says he initially enjoyed the compulsion but now feels trapped – unable to tell his doctor, or even his wife, as she also attends his appointments.
“I know I need help, but the people that can help, I can’t talk to,” he says. “I’ve nowhere to turn.”
Charities like Parkinson’s UK and RLS-UK can offer support. NHS advice is also clear – if you’re taking these drugs and you have any concerns you should speak to a doctor.
The BBC has now discovered that GSK learned of a case of paedophilia linked to its drug in 2000 – seven years before any warnings appeared about sexual urges.
A 63-year-old man on Ropinirole had sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl and been imprisoned.
This case was later included in a report about safety concerns in 2003 which described a link between Ropinirole and what GSK called “deviant” sexual behaviour.
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GSK says it shared its report with the UK drug regulator the following year – and had told it about the paedophilia case within days.
But this specific language about “deviancy” has never appeared in warnings. Rather, they list the potential for an “increased libido”, “harmful behaviour” and an “altered sexual interest”.
We have also learned that, at the same time GSK was compiling its findings, it was also applying to use Ropinirole for a different condition, RLS. It then also collaborated with a private hospital in the US to see if its drug was effective as a treatment for sexual dysfunction in 2005.
GSK told the BBC that its drug was extensively trialled, continues to be approved by regulators around the world, and that side effects are clearly stated. It said that it did not sponsor or design the 2005 trial.
In a statement, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it took years for warnings to appear in 2007 because such a decision requires all available evidence to be considered – and leaflets cannot include an “exhaustive” list of behaviours as many are “individualised”.
Many of the people who contacted the BBC also said they felt they had no recourse to justice for side effects they say they weren’t properly warned about.
However, outside the UK, a number of legal cases have been lodged – ranging from compensation claims to criminal cases where defendants have walked free.
A year ago, a Belgian court acquitted a man who had sexually assaulted his four-year-old granddaughter on the grounds that his Ropinirole medication had caused his paedophilic behaviour.
Next month, a major judgement is expected in a French court after a man in his 50s sued GSK for failing to adequately warn patients of these side effects.
The man says the medication destroyed his relationship with his partner – and he lost €90,000 (£78,600) to compulsive gambling and spending.
He is requesting damages – and for the company to recognise liability.
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