Calls grow to update UK warnings on dopamine drugs (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Now, the chair of the Commons Health Committee has called on the UK's drug regulator to review warnings about medications which can cause impulsive behaviour as a side effect. A BBC investigation has found that for some patients, the drugs cause compulsive gambling or sexual behaviour. Our correspondent Noel Titheridge has this special investigation.

[00:00:22] Speaker 2: He was an incredibly straight-laced, risk-averse person.

[00:00:27] Speaker 3: Freddie's dad, Bill, was always a cautious man.

[00:00:31] Speaker 2: He worked as a teacher his whole career, and then, aged 54, retired early, he'd developed some symptoms around his movement and speech, went on to medication shortly after.

[00:00:44] Speaker 3: Bill was prescribed drugs which boost dopamine activity to treat Parkinson's, but his behaviour started to change, watching pornography openly and driving erratically. Before long... ...he'd also sold the family home, and suddenly needed money. He said, it's invested. Okay. Where?

[00:01:06] Speaker 2: In Ghana. Heart just totally sank. These side effects of severe impulse control disorder, hypersexuality, made dad the perfect victim for a romance scam.

[00:01:25] Speaker 3: Freddie had never been warned about the side effects, and by the time he found out about them in 2017, his dad had lost around £300,000.

[00:01:35] Speaker 2: But the money was of total insignificance. To the pain of losing dad.

[00:01:52] Speaker 3: Don't worry, Freddie, take a moment. Our investigations heard from scores of families who say these impulsive behaviours have led to huge debts, the break-up of families, and even criminality. One man stole £600,000 to fund his impulsive behaviour. Another woman lost over £150,000 to gambling.

[00:02:15] Speaker 4: From the age of 11, I was prescribed the drug that soon led to me going to arcades to gamble. It just got worse from there. Brandon has Tourette's.

[00:02:23] Speaker 3: Brandon has Tourette's syndrome and had only just started secondary school when he was prescribed arapiprazole, a separate drug that's known as a partial dopamine agonist, but also causes impulsive behaviour.

[00:02:36] Speaker 4: I was stealing from family. I'd borrowed from several people, maybe tens of people. It just got considerably worse, consistently worse, until I found myself in a lot of debt.

[00:02:45] Speaker 3: Brandon's mother says the family even raised his gambling problems with doctors, but his medication wasn't changed. Brandon says they also never warned him. Brandon's mother says the family even raised his gambling problems with doctors, but his medication wasn't changed. Brandon says the family even raised his gambling problems with doctors, but his medication wasn't changed.

[00:02:59] Speaker 4: And the ft said he's always really angry whenever I'm talking to people about my problems, into what's going on involved, I mean ophthalmologist stuff. Brandon says probing him in like on a presidentialも. The majority are West Indies. His lawyers have told him about side effects. Brandon says he's lost more than 100,000 pounds in total.

[00:03:07] Speaker 3: He's lost more than 100,000 pounds in total. It's ruined me. You know, I've pushed away lots of people who have lied and been deceitful to people who have done everything for me. Jackson says some IC przewr Mitarbeiter says he has no plans to strength warnings either demostrates these side effects because he sees no signs of an individual or a family dealing with such a situation.

[00:03:17] Speaker 5: drug regulator the MHRA says it has no plans to strengthen warnings and doesn't list the frequency of these side effects because many people don't report them. It's not just a side effect that affects an individual, it's affecting their families, their communities.

[00:03:24] Speaker 3: The chair of the UK Health Select Committee says this needs to change.

[00:03:28] Speaker 5: It's so devastating as a lawmaker to see how badly those families have been let down by the system but what does it mean, impulsive behaviours, and how likely is it that they could get it? At the moment patients don't have that information and without it how can they be expected to mitigate it?

[00:03:46] Speaker 3: Manufacturers of the drugs say they were extensively trialled, continue to be approved by regulators around the world and side effects are clearly stated. Bill died three years ago. Freddie says he'll spend the rest of his life living with the consequences.

[00:04:04] Speaker 2: It is. A massive scandal, I dread to think how many people have been impacted.

[00:04:12] Speaker 3: Noel Titheridge, BBC News.

[00:04:16] Speaker 1: Well Noel joins me now in the studio, I mean it's a hard watch your investigation isn't it? And this, I understand these cases are just the tip of the iceberg what we saw in your story there.

[00:04:27] Speaker 3: Yeah well I've spent the past year speaking to families about the devastating consequences of side effects of this family of prescription drugs. Now scores of people have told me that they developed impulsive behaviours such as sex and gambling addictions that in turn led to huge debts, the breakup of marriages, criminality and even in one case suicide. One family told me about their previously well respected solicitor father who stole £600,000 to fund sex and bizarrely antiques, now he later took his own life. Many of these people had two things in common, they said they either weren't warned properly by doctors and they never made the link between their behaviour and their medication. It's been known for more than two decades that these drugs can cause impulsive behaviours and the side effects are common. Around one in six Parkinson's patients are affected it's thought.

[00:05:19] Speaker 1: It's really difficult to listen to that isn't it Noel, it really is, a real tragedy. What do the manufacturers and the authorities say about your investigation?

[00:05:28] Speaker 3: Well the government says our findings are hugely concerning but the UK drug regulator, the MHRA says there are no plans currently to change warnings. Manufacturers say that these drugs have been extensively trialled, repeatedly approved by regulators across the world and that the side effects are clearly stated. These drugs are an established treatment and prescribed over a million and a half times by GPs alone in the UK in England last year. NHS advice is clear, if you have any concerns you should speak to your doctor.

[00:05:59] Speaker 1: And if we can just briefly talk a little bit more about how these drugs work. Because they're prescribed for things like you say Parkinson's, how can they then lead to these sort of side effects?

[00:06:10] Speaker 3: Well these drugs are called dopamine agonists and they work by boosting the activity of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine's a key chemical for movement, for coordinating movement and so particularly helpful with Parkinson's where sufferers face tremors and shakes. But dopamine's also key in driving feelings of reward and enjoyment and it's thought that these drugs can overstimulate these feelings.

[00:06:31] Speaker 1: Okay. And is there any action that's likely to be taken? What conversations now moving this forward?

[00:06:36] Speaker 3: Well the chair of the Health Select Committee has now written to the UK drug regulator asking them to review findings. They want the commonality, the frequency of impulse control disorders to be included in warnings.

[00:06:48] Speaker 1: It's really important work that you've done Noel. I know it's taken you a long time to get to this as well but really appreciate you coming in and talking about your story.