Some really alarming side effects of a certain class of common prescription drugs have recently surfaced but the mainstream media is playing deaf and blind over the story. The class of drugs called dopamine agonists can cause deviant sexual behavior as it can alter one’s internal sexual chemistry to a dangerous level.
Dopamine agonists are prescribed for two medical conditions – restless leg syndrome (RLS) and Parkinson’s disease. Recently, the BBC reviewed reports by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline revealing that dopamine agonists are linked to deviant sexual behavior. A number of case studies reviewed in the reports revealed one alarming case of such effects on a man who sexually assaulted a child while being on one of these drugs.
Reporting the story, the New York Post wrote that these drugs consumed by millions of patients in America can cause sexual deviance including pedophilia.
In other reports of such sexual deviance linked to the drug use, a number of women reported that their lives were ruined by these drugs for causing risky or erratic sexual behavior. One woman, named Claire, told some details of how her life was destroyed by Ropinirole, a commonly prescribed dopamine agonist, which she took for RLS. The drug gave her uncontrollable sexual craving and she used to go out to lure men for sex with exhibitionism despite having a partner.
Claire said it took years to connect these urges to her medication — and they disappeared almost immediately when she stopped taking it. She now feels “shame” and is “mortified” at the dangerous situations she put herself in.
Ropinirole is described on Drugs.com as a drug used not only for Parkinson’s disease and RLS but also for other purposes not specified in the guide. It has a long list of common side effects including but not limited to: high blood pressure, headache, flu like symptoms (fever, chills etc.), swelling in legs/feet, nausea and upset digestion, and a mental confusion or hallucinations. The side effects section notes:
You may have increased sexual urges, unusual urges to gamble, or other intense urges while taking ropinirole. Talk with your doctor if this occurs.
BBC also published a story (March 12) about Phil Stevens, a 66-year-old man from Hampshire, who developed a gambling addiction after he was prescribed Ropinirole in 2018 and he took the drug for four years. When he learnt of the drug’s gambling effect, he sued his doctor for not warning him about it:
He claimed his GP did not warn him about the side effects of the drug and after taking legal action against his doctor he received a £70,000 settlement – but they did not admit liability.
The mainstream media, with the exception of BBC, seem to have entirely ignored the story of the damaging sexual effects of dopamine agonist drugs. The New York Post and The Western Journal are two of the few conservative news sources that have reported the story.
After the handful of media stories about this effect showing at dangerous levels in many patients, the question arises of the patient’s right to be told ahead of the drug’s use by the doctors. It is also a call for the health authorities to investigate the reported suppression of information by doctors and/or the drug manufacturer. Thus far, there is no official response to these stories by any of the health agencies in the U.S.
Health-conscious people have every reason to be worried now about their loved ones or acquaintances who have been prescribed these drugs but were kept in the dark about its sexual or gambling addition effects. And if they have hidden these effects from the public, one can only imagine what else and how much of the risks associated with prescription drugs are still kept secret by the pharmaceuticals and their allies in the medical practice.