The Global Story: The medications that can trigger sex and gambling addictions

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Global Story – The Medications That Can Trigger Sex and Gambling Addictions

Podcast: Global News Podcast (BBC World Service)
Date: April 12, 2026
Hosts: Asma Khalid, Noel Titheridge
Episode Theme:
An in-depth BBC investigation into a class of medications called dopamine agonists, prescribed for conditions like Parkinson’s disease, restless leg syndrome, and depression. The episode explores how these pharmaceuticals can cause life-altering side effects, including compulsive sexual behavior and gambling addiction, and why patients often aren’t warned.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Examining severe side effects of dopamine agonist medications (compulsive sex, gambling, and other impulse-control disorders)
• Personal testimonies & lived experience (primarily Charlene’s story)
• The public health communication gap between pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and patients
• Ethical, legal, and regulatory challenges—and the ongoing impact on patient lives

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction & Trigger Warning

• The BBC’s Asma Khalid opens with a trigger warning for sensitive content around sex and suicide (01:36).
• Listeners are introduced to Charlene, whose personality changed after starting a new medication for depression (02:41).

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2. Charlene’s Story: From Stability to Chaos

Charlene’s Experience with Dopamine Agonists

• At 42, Charlene was prescribed a dopamine agonist for her depression, already taking an antidepressant (06:36).
• After several months, she began experiencing an “insatiable sex drive,” leading her to seek sex with strangers compulsively (02:41, 07:49, 08:48).
  • Quote: "I had this kind of insatiable sex drive... I needed to have sex with as many people as I could have sex with. That's what it felt like.” — Charlene (08:48)
• This behavior quickly escalated, ending her long-term relationship and exposing her to risky situations and physical abuse (09:45, 10:16).
• She also developed a host of other compulsive behaviors: compulsive shopping and spending, hair dyeing, unsafe driving, and ultimately shoplifting after depleting her savings (12:00).

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3. Dopamine Agonists – What Are They?

Noel Titheridge’s Reporting and Background

• Dopamine agonists, developed by multiple companies, are primarily intended for Parkinson’s, restless leg syndrome, and sometimes depression.
• They work by dramatically increasing dopamine activity—giving relief from motor symptoms, but also hyperactivating the brain’s reward system (04:55).

Key Side Effect Profile

• Over 350 individuals contacted the BBC with stories of compulsive behaviors after taking these medications (05:55).
• Notably, many testified they were not warned about these risks by doctors or leaflets (05:55, 06:18).

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4. History and Underrecognition of the Problem

• Dopamine agonists became widely used for Parkinson’s in the 1990s, after earlier use for pituitary gland tumors (13:04).
• Initially, clinical trials and product information did not highlight these behaviors, leaving both doctors and patients unaware (14:34).
• The drugs were first perceived as “miracle medications” because they addressed Parkinson’s symptoms without previous drugs’ drawbacks (13:04).

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5. Growing Awareness and Official Recognition

• Only in the early 2000s did academic studies demonstrate a real connection between dopamine agonists and impulse-control disorders (15:35).
  • One pivotal study: “one in six people on these drugs develop impulsive behaviors.” Further estimates put risk as high as one in three (15:49–16:18).
• Only after this research did warnings start appearing in small font on medication leaflets (17:13), but patients argued the warnings were hard to find, understand, or take seriously.

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6. Why the Risks Remain Undercommunicated

Problems with Medical Communication

• Doctors sometimes joked about side effects or used clinical language (“hypersexuality”) that didn’t seem relevant or concerning to patients (18:11, 18:37).
  • Quote: “The language wasn’t clear enough... If the warnings had talked about porn addiction and use of sex workers, families may have recognized behaviors.” — Noel Titheridge (19:24)
• Increased libido might not sound harmful, especially to older patients (19:28), but it can mask deeper issues (19:28).
• Shame and stigma compound the problem—patients are often reluctant to disclose sexual or risky behaviors (19:24, 19:44).

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7. Legal and Ethical Complexity

• Lawsuits have been rare and difficult to win—clinical negligence is hard to prove retrospectively (22:03).
• Evidence for compulsive gambling is easier to establish via bank records, but harm from sexual behavior or family disruption is harder to document (22:43).
• Ethical dilemma: How much agency do patients have if their behavior is drug-induced? One case cited involves a respected lawyer whose compulsive actions led to crime, with the judge ruling some personal responsibility remained (23:08–24:11).

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8. Responses from Drug Companies & Regulators

• Pharmaceutical firms say the drugs were trialed and are properly labeled (24:27).
• Some academics have called for FDA-style “black box” warnings (25:02), but US regulators feel the benefit/risk balance does not justify it (25:17).

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9. Resolution: Charlene’s Realization and Aftermath

• After she began shoplifting, Charlene’s psychiatrist recognized the link to her medication and advised her to stop (26:02).
  • Quote: “She whipped around... and said, ‘it's the medication.’ She was 95% sure it was the medication, and she had to get me off of that medication.” — Charlene (26:02)
• Stopping the drug didn’t bring restoration—she experienced worsened depression and PTSD from her experiences (26:49, 27:03).
  • Quote: “It's had a devastating impact... I know there are many people out there who are on this drug, and they have no idea of the damage that this can cause... it doesn't have to keep happening.” — Charlene (27:03)

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10. Conclusion – Lessons and Calls to Action

Noel’s Reflections

• The investigation continues to receive new testimonies, especially from underreported regions like the US (27:57).
• Reducing shame and increasing clear risk communication is critical so patients can make truly informed choices (28:54).

Regulatory Consequence

• The UK drug safety regulator will review warning labels on several dopamine agonist medications in response to the investigation (29:13).

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Memorable Quotes with Timestamps

• "I had this kind of insatiable sex drive all of a sudden, and that meant seeking out men wherever I could seek them out." — Charlene (02:41)
• "She whipped around... and said, ‘it's the medication.’ She was 95% sure it was the medication." — Charlene (26:02)
• "If the language had talked about, you know, porn addiction and use of sex workers... families may be able to recognize these new behaviors when they emerge." — Noel Titheridge (19:24)
• "Unless we can reduce the shame and stigma... then they'll continue to be underreported. And unless people have true knowledge of the scale of the side effects and their consequences, how can they make truly informed decisions?" — Noel Titheridge (28:54)
• "It's had a devastating impact. I mean, I'm still trying to recover... I know there are many people out there who are on this drug, and they have no idea of the damage that this can cause." — Charlene (27:03)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:41] Charlene describes initial onset of hypersexuality
• [05:42] Overview of widespread yet underreported cases
• [07:49] First drastic behavioral change
• [10:16] Charlene reflects on new risky behaviors
• [13:04] History of dopamine agonist usage
• [15:49] Landmark research linking drugs to compulsive behaviors
• [16:41] Regulatory risk-benefit calculation
• [19:24] Critique of current warning language
• [22:03] Legal challenges faced by patients
• [23:08] Ethical dilemma regarding agency and blame
• [26:02] Turning point: Charlene’s realization
• [27:03] Lasting personal impacts
• [29:13] UK regulator begins review in response to investigation

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Summary Takeaways

• Dopamine agonists can cause devastating impulse-control disorders in a significant minority of patients.
• Patients, families, and even many healthcare providers historically lacked clear warning or understanding of these risks.
• Due to vague language, social stigma, short appointments, and shame, side effects are underreported and not easily addressed.
• Regulatory and legal tools for patient protection and recourse remain limited, prompting a need for improved warnings and doctor-patient communication.
• Ongoing journalism continues to raise awareness and sparks regulatory reviews—potentially leading to safer prescribing practices in the future.

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Transcript

[Noel Titheridge]

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[Asma Khalid]

hey there, I'm Asma Khalid.

[Noel Titheridge]

And I'm Tristan Redman, and we're here with a bonus episode for you from the Global Story podcast.

[Asma Khalid]

The world order is shifting. Old alliances are fraying and new ones are emerging. Some of this turbulence can be traced to decisions made in the United States. But the US Isn't just a cause of the upheaval. Its politics are also a symptom of it.

[Noel Titheridge]

Every day we focus on one story looking at how America and the world shape each other.

[Asma Khalid]

So we hope you enjoy this episode and to find more of our show, just search for the Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Today we've got a special BBC investigation for you all. It's a really, really fascinating story, but I also want to note that this episode talks about sex and there's a mention of suicide. So. So please take care while listening. And if you have little ones around, you might wanna listen to this at a different moment. When Charlene was 42 years old, living in Massachusetts, she began taking this new medicine to help her with mild depression. The drug worked. Her mood improved. But after taking it for a while, her behavior also started to change dramatically.

[Charlene]

I had this kind of insatiable sex drive all of a sudden, and that meant seeking out men wherever I Could seek them out.

[Asma Khalid]

What Charlene didn't realize because the thought never crossed her mind, Was that these changes were a side effect of her new medication. Millions of people all over the world have been prescribed drugs like the one Charlene was taking. They're called dopamine agonists, and they're used to treat various illnesses, From Parkinson's to depression. But for an alarming number of patients, these drugs don't just treat the symptoms of those diseases. They also have side effects that can fundamentally alter people's personalities. I'm Asma Khalid. And today on the global story, A new BBC investigation has heard from hundreds of people whose lives were turned upside down by prescription medications. How did this happen? And why do patients say they weren't so sufficiently warned? Well, Noel, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for coming on the show.

[Noel Titheridge]

Thanks for having me.

[Asma Khalid]

Noel titheridge is an investigations correspondent at the BBC, and he's been working on this investigation for over a year. I kicked off our conversation by asking him how he first came across this story.

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, I heard about a case going through the courts in France, so that involved a French man who's suing a pharmaceutical company, saying that they didn't properly warn him about side effects of the medications he was on. He says that he developed compulsive sexual urges, what's known as hypersexuality that ruined his relationship. He also said that he had lost more than $100,000 to compulsive gambling. I'd never heard about this before, and I couldn't believe that prescription medications could be that powerful. So I wanted to know how widely are these drugs used and how common are these side effects?

[Asma Khalid]

Okay. And I know your reporting specifically looks at this class of drugs, dopamine agonists. Can you walk us through what these drugs are used for? What do they do? What do they do to our brains?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah. Well, they're a family of drugs. They were developed and manufactured by multiple companies. These drugs are widely used for Parkinson's and then other conditions like restless leg syndrome and even, in some cases, depression. Now, the way they work is they boost dopamine activity in the brain. So dopamine's this chemical that's vital in coordinating our smooth movements. So the drugs can be really effective for Parkinson's sufferers that suffer from shakes and tremors. But we also know dopamine is that key chemical in. In driving feelings of motivation and reward. You know, the idea of the dopamine hit, this need for instant gratification, and it's thought that these drugs can overstimulate these feelings of motivation and reward.

[Asma Khalid]

So just to be clear, you've been investigating this, Noel, for, is it more than a year now, and spoken to hundreds of people, you say, who took these medications who had very similar problematic side effects?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah, that's right. You know, over 350 people in all have been in touch with us. Many of them talk about ruinous sexual urges, about compulsive gambling that cost them tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars. And what's really striking is that many of them say that they weren't properly warned about these side effects. And this has had devastating consequences.

[Asma Khalid]

So, as you say, you have spoken to hundreds of people and, and I know you've done some original reporting for us here at the Global Story. You spoke with a woman by the name of Charlene who lives in the U.S. can you tell us a little bit about her?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah. So Charlene's 52, she's from Massachusetts.

[Charlene]

At the time, it was 2016, and I was seeing a psychiatrist for depression. I'd had depression on and off since I was a teenager. I was functioning, though. I had a career, had a master's degree, was doing well, had a partner. So life was going pretty well. It was just these symptoms that I wanted to see if we could control better.

[Noel Titheridge]

So she was already on an antidepressant drug, but her psychiatrist prescribed her another drug from this family that we're interested in called dopamine agonists. And it was this drug she was prescribed alongside her antidepressant.

[Asma Khalid]

So Charlene starts taking one of those dopamine agonists. And what happens after she starts taking that medication?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, for the first couple of months, nothing. And that's actually common to lots of people that have contacted us. It's not like these side effects immediately emerge and that often makes it hard to spot them when they do emerge. Now, Charlene works with blind people. That was her job. She helps them, teaches them navigational aids, things like canes and guide dogs. And it was while working with a client that she'd already known for some time that her new behavior began to emerge.

[Charlene]

I was working with this client who was very flirtatious with me. So I would tell my colleagues, oh, he's very flirtatious with me. But never in my mind would I have thought, I'm gonna have a relationship with this person. Ethically, it wasn't something I would do. But then one day, something changed. All of a sudden, I was very bold and went up to him and just said, why don't you just kiss me? And he did. That launched me into so much more danger. From that point on, I should provide a little bit of context. Imagine you're a person who's had this kind of depressive state for your life, and then suddenly this dopamine is in your brain and it's pushing it to the highest level that it can get. It feels pretty good. You think your depression has been cured and it feels like you're living your best life. And part of living my best life was, well, I had this kind of insatiable sex drive all of a sudden. And that meant seeking out men wherever I could seek them out. I would go to bars and get all dressed up and just pick somebody up at the bar. It can be anybody on the street. I've went into the local pizza place and found a guy. The local 711 found a guy. I needed to have sex with as many people as I could have sex with. That's what it felt like. Like there was this drive that you had to do this.

[Noel Titheridge]

So for Charlene, this had consequences. She'd been in a stable relationship for six years. She confessed to her partner that she'd been sleeping with other men and he ended the relationship. But crucially, he would have had no idea that her new impulsive behavior could be attribut to the medication that she's on. But after the relationship, the consequences begin to get even more serious that some of these sexual encounters that she described involved significant physical abuse.

[Charlene]

So that one summer of 20, it was 2017, I had estimated I had sex with about 25 different men and they would bring a friend the next time and it would be a threesome and then a foursome. And then I think it got up to one time, five, five different men. It ended up turning into some very unsavory characters. And so when you think about how that feels in the moment, it felt good. It felt like I was really elated doing that, that, that satisfied that need. But then after you. You realize, why am I having sex with five, five men? But it doesn't occur to you that something's wrong, Something's wrong with you due to the medicine. It's just you kind of think, well, I'm 42 or 43. Maybe this is what it's like to not be depressed. Maybe this is what it's like to be perimenopausal. And there was no kind of thinking at that time that something was really wrong.

[Asma Khalid]

Gosh, Noel, this sounds really, really awful. And it sounds like she also doesn't know why these things are happening to her. Were the behavior changes that Charlene exhibited Largely sexual behavior changes? Did she experience other types of compulsive behavior?

[Noel Titheridge]

She did. Many of the people that have contacted us talk about developing multiple impulsive behaviors. Now, hypersexuality was a really significant one for Charlene. She also developed other forms of impulsive behavior, which, again, had significant consequences for her.

[Charlene]

There were so many things that I did compulsively. I would dye my hair day after day until it finally all started falling out and I had to shave it off. I was driving aggressively, getting into road rage incidents with people. One of them was spending money. So I'd go into any kind of clothing store and buy a lot of clothes, just spent money until there was no more money to spend anywhere, and there were no more credit cards I could get. And then I ended up taking out all of the retirement I had in a previous job and just kind of bottomed out.

[Asma Khalid]

Gosh. It seems like she did not understand the risks of the medication she was taking. And my understanding from your reporting is that it seems like the awareness of these drugs is not as high as it could be. So what's the history of this? Where does this all begin?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, this goes back a long time, actually. You know, these drugs began to be used for a particular type of tumour in the 1980s. TUM that's called a pituitary gland tumor, but relatively at low levels. But then in the 1990s, they begin to be used for Parkinson's disease. You know, Parkinson's disease is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world. There are some 12 million sufferers, and that number's thought to be about to double before 2050 because of aging populations. But this drug was this time seen as a miracle medication. A previous generation of drugs used for Parkinson's had side effects all of their own. They cause involuntary movements, which are highly embarrassing for sufferers of Parkinson's. So these dopamine agonists are able to tackle the shakes and tremors that sufferers of Parkinson's face, but they also don't cause some of the involuntary movements. So these drugs then widely begin to be used for Parkinson's and then other conditions like restless leg syndrome, and in Charlene's case, depression.

[Asma Khalid]

And what exactly is restless leg syndrome?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah, restless leg syndrome is a condition which causes an uncontrollable urge to move. Many sufferers of this condition describe awful sensations, particularly late at night, that can cause chronic sleeplessness and really affect people's quality of life.

[Asma Khalid]

So, to be clear, when the medications first were put on the market, no one, it sounds, was talking about these side effects. You didn't hear this from doctors, you didn't hear this from researchers?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, exactly. These hadn't appeared to any great degree, as far as we understand, in clinical trials. So you've got a situation where patients aren't aware, prescribing doctors aren't aware and they don't appear in leaflets at all. But our investigation found out that doctors did begin to share stories about the crazy, wild experiences that their patients were having. These side effects that led to huge debts, they led to the breakup of marriages, criminality and even in some cases, suicide.

[Asma Khalid]

I see. So you've outlined a timeline for us in which these drugs really started to become popularized in the 1990s through throughout the early 2000s. There's still no official report on the side effects, no warning that's being given to patients, but it appears there is some anecdotal evidence building that these drugs might not be safe for everyone. So when are these side effects, this anecdotal evidence, when does it actually first begin to be properly investigated?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, academics in the early noughties begin to publish reports proving this link between these drugs and impulsive behaviour. And this is followed by clinical research by the pharmaceutical companies.

[Asma Khalid]

So this is the early 2000s then?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah, this is the early to mid 2000s. There's a significant study that finds that one in six people on these drugs develop impulsive behaviors.

[Asma Khalid]

Wow.

[Noel Titheridge]

Now, to kind of put that in perspective, health authorities here, they say that a side effect is very common if it affects one in 10 sufferers. So while not all side effects will be extreme or severe, some academics put the relationship even higher. They say one in three people are affected.

[Asma Khalid]

Oh, wow. I mean, that's staggering data to see in the side effects. And so once researchers detect that these side effects are indeed fairly common, once that is proven, why do the drugs stay on the market? I mean, presumably, I understand they are helping patients, but there has got to be some sort of tension looking at the pros and cons in that dynamic.

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, these drugs can be life changing for many people, particularly, we're told by Parkinson's sufferers, for them in the early stages of the condition. And regulators have always made these calculations that the benefits overall outweigh the risks. But what many people tell us, these people that have gotten in touch with us, that have experienced these side effects is, is that the complete scale of these side effects and the Nature of them. Everyone needs to be aware of it. So warnings do appear in the mid to late.

[Charlene]

And how.

[Asma Khalid]

So how are the warnings disclosed to the public?

[Noel Titheridge]

So they begin to appear in the leaflets, the packaging that you'll receive in the medication. In that small font.

[Asma Khalid]

It'll say that in that small font.

[Noel Titheridge]

Exactly. But what people say to us is that the warnings weren't sufficient enough. They hadn't been sufficiently warned to make the link between their newly developed impulsive behaviors and. And the drugs that they were taking until it was far, far too late.

[Asma Khalid]

So Charlene, in her story, she started taking these drugs 10 years ago. I find it hard to compute why, if the research was done, you're saying in the early 2000s, why someone like Charlene in the year 2016 was not aware of the risks of the medication she was on unless that information was not being fully disclosed? Right. You say that the risks were known, that they were beginning to be printed on leaflets. How do people continue then to take the drug and not know the side effects?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, we've kept hearing the same complaints by people. One is that they weren't warned properly by their doctor. It wasn't taken seriously enough that there was a kind of like tittering or a kind of joke made about the sort of sexual side effects, when actually it was a lot more serious for these people when they developed. Other people complained about the language of the warnings, that they weren't clear enough.

[Asma Khalid]

What do they say? Do you have an exact language description?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah. So around sexually impulsive behavior, this term hypersexuality, that for a lot of people is quite hard to.

[Asma Khalid]

And what does that mean? Because isn't hypersexuality an actual disorder?

[Noel Titheridge]

It's compulsive sexual urges. So, you know, anyone can behave impulsively, but when impulsive behavior is deemed as harmful, that's considered an impulse control disorder. And hypersexuality is one of these kinds. And in the warnings that appear on leaflets, they talk about sexually altered interest, increase in libido, generally harmful behavior. But the people that developed extreme cases of these side effects, they say that the way that these manifest is often in porn addiction, in use of sex workers. And they're saying that that's the sort of language that they think the warning should include.

[Asma Khalid]

I mean, increased libido by itself doesn't sound particularly harmful.

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, and many men say that when they were told this in appointments in their 50s, 6 and 70s, they actually thought this might be a good thing. You know, when they were experiencing declining libidos, themselves. But if the language had talked about, you know, porn addiction and partners, families would would hear that language, they may be able to recognize these new behaviors when they emerge. But crucially, the, the other aspect of all this is that people say that some of these behaviors, sex addiction, gambling addiction, they can be really shameful. How do you tell your doctor in a brief appointment what you're going through? That's what stops a lot of people reporting this and getting into further and further problems.

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[Asma Khalid]

You've spoken in your reporting to hundreds of people. Did any of them bring legal cases against the drug companies, against their medical providers as a result of the side effects they experienced?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yes, some have. They appeared few and far between. So there are clinical negligence cases. That's where you say you weren't warned by your doctor. But this can be really hard to prove, right? So people say, how do you begin to evidence that your doctor didn't warn you about a side effect in an appointment that may have taken place, you know, a decade ago? Where there have been cases, generally they involve gambling. People that can say, look, I wasn't gambling before. You can see that through my bank statements. I begin taking these drugs and Look, I've lost $100,000. But with other forms of impulsive behavior, like sexually impulsive behavior, where relationships have been ruined, families have been broken up, how do you evidence the harm in those cases?

[Asma Khalid]

I imagine it's also difficult for the patients you've spoken to to weigh up how much agency they had. Right. Because I do think, particularly when you talk about sexual behavior changes, some folks might be wondering, well, hey, is this just not on me? People do change their sexual behaviors over their life, and is that just not a part of it? Do they wonder and do they struggle with how much agency they had?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah, that. That's a real theme here. So there's one particular case which is quite striking in that regard. It involves a family whose previously really respected father stole more than $600,000 from vulnerable elderly clients. So his legal practice involved having control of the financial affairs of lots of local elderly people in his community. But extraordinarily, he was stealing this money and he was paying for sex workers with the money. And bizarrely, he was using it to pay for antiques. One of his great hobbies was antiques. And he was spending huge amounts of money on antiques, stealing from his clients, more than a dozen people that lost huge sums of money. This story took a really tragic turn when the lawyer was sent to prison. But interestingly, the sentencing, the judge said that while the drugs were responsible for this man's behavior, he still felt he must have been able to spot his behaviour and he should have been able to warn someone and seek help from a doctor.

[Asma Khalid]

That is a really interesting ethical question.

[Noel Titheridge]

Exactly. And it's very tricky territory. But I think, as Charlene put it in one of the clips that we've played here, you know, you've got this dopamine hit loop and it changes your judgment. Where does the personality begin and where does the medication end?

[Asma Khalid]

I have to ask, what have drug companies said in response to your investigation?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah, so we've spoken to some of the manufacturers. They say that these drugs were extensively trialed, that they've been approved and continue to be approved by regulators around the world who make this benefit versus risk calculation. And they say that the side effects of are clearly stated.

[Asma Khalid]

So you say that drug companies put these warnings on the medication. Is it your sense that there is more that can be done to make these drugs safer somehow?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, there have been attempts over the years. So one American academic paper said that there should be a black box warning on these drugs.

[Asma Khalid]

Like cigarettes?

[Noel Titheridge]

Exactly like cigarettes. You know, that extreme in terms of the potential side effects.

[Asma Khalid]

What font you're saying exactly?

[Noel Titheridge]

In big font. But the fda, the US drug regulator, said that it didn't feel that these side effects were sufficiently serious when compared with the benefits. And it said it's extensively evaluated this and issued multiple updates.

[Asma Khalid]

Okay, we want to know how Charlene's story Ends. You know, she talked about bottoming out. How does she finally realize what was happening?

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, Charlene had taken out $50,000 from her RET savings to fund her compulsive shopping. But soon that money dried up and she began shoplifting. And it's at this point, amidst all her other behavior, that she goes back to her psychiatrist.

[Charlene]

And I went to see her and said, you know, I think there's something wrong. Maybe I have bipolar disorder, because that was what I thought. And I remember her whipping around and she had a rolling chair, and she whipped around and said, it's the medication. She was 95% sure it was the medication, and she had to get me off of that medication. But even then, Noel, I was not convinced. I thought, there's. There's no way it's the medication. How could the medication do all that? In my head, that's what I thought, because that's how much I. I was unaware that something like that could happen.

[Asma Khalid]

Gosh. Does she go off the medication?

[Noel Titheridge]

Yeah, she does. But she says it's had a significant impact on her, that her depression has gotten worse. And she cites the PTSD that she developed from the sexual encounters and the abuse that she suffered as a cause of that.

[Charlene]

It's had a devastating impact. I mean, I'm still trying to recover. It gets me choked up to even talk about it a lot of the time. I know there are many people out there who are on this drug, and they have no idea of the damage that this can cause. So I think it's really important to get the word out there that there are other people who've been through this and you can make it through. And two, that it doesn't have to keep happening. This doesn't have to happen to them.

[Asma Khalid]

So, Noel, you started investigating these cases more than a year ago, and as we say, you've spoken with hundreds of people, hundreds of case studies people are still, in fact, getting in touch with you. So I just want to ask Noel here at the end what you've learned.

[Noel Titheridge]

Well, it's been an overwhelming experience. These are really difficult stories to hear. But there's also something really satisfying. Whenever we publish one of these stories, we're flooded with people getting in touch. And what's been really striking is the number of cases from people in the US where this seems a really underreported subject. You know, we've been approached by lots of people in America who are sort of saying, I've never seen this written about before. Thank God it wasn't just me. That this happened to me. But it feels to me that unless we can reduce the shame and the stigma that people suffer when they take these medications and experience these side effects, then they'll continue to be underreported. And unless people have true knowledge of the scale of the side effects and their consequences, how can they make truly informed decisions?

[Charlene]

Foreign

[Asma Khalid]

It's a really, really interesting story. Noel, thanks so much for bringing your reporting to us.

[Noel Titheridge]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Asma Khalid]

That was Noel Titheridge, an investigations correspondent at the BBC. And in response to Noel's investigation, the national drug safety regulator in the the UK has said it will begin reviewing the warning labels for several dopamine agonist medications. If you appreciated today's show and broadly the type of journalism that we bring you here on the Global Story, where we go in depth every day on one big story at the intersection of where America and the world meet, then I've got a favor to ask. Could you take a moment to write a review or rate us wherever you listen, it really helps other people find us. And by the way, if you all have questions for us, we love hearing from listeners. We want to know what stories you're interested in hearing. You can email [e-mail] Today's episode was produced by Viv Jones. It was edited by Bridget Harney and mixed by Travis Evans. Our video producer is Matt Pintus. Our senior news editor is Chyna Collins. And I'm Asma Khalid. Thanks as always for spending some time with us and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.

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