A BBC investigation has heard from hundreds of people who say they developed sex and gambling addictions after taking a category of prescription drugs called dopamine agonists.<\/p>\n
Millions of people in the US and around the world have been prescribed these medications, which are used to treat various illnesses, from Parkinson\u2019s to depression. But they have well-established side effects: around 1 in 6 people who take them develop impulse control disorders.<\/p>\n
Noel Titheradge, investigations correspondent, shares the story of one American woman who developed hypersexuality after she took a dopamine agonist drug. Like many of the patients Noel has spoken to, she says she was not warned that her medication could dramatically change her personality.<\/p>\n
Noel\u2019s investigation is also a BBC podcast series. Search for \u2018Shadow World: Impulsive\u2019.<\/p>\n
If you have any concerns about medication you\u2019re taking, speak to your doctor. For further information on the issues raised in the programme, contact support organisations in your own country. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support go to bbc.co.uk\/actionline.<\/p>\n
Producers: Viv Jones<\/p>\n
Executive producer: Bridget Harney<\/p>\n
Mix: Travis Evans<\/p>\n
Senior news editor: China Collins<\/p>\n
Photo: A mixture of pills. Credit: Lauren Hurley\/PA Wire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A BBC investigation has heard from hundreds of people who say they developed sex and gambling addictions after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-518550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}