Women claim medicine for restless leg syndrome led to risky sexual behaviour, gambling urges: Report | Trending

Twenty women who were prescribed medicines for movement disorders have claimed that the drugs led them to seek out risky sexual behaviour, a report BBC said. Twenty women claimed medications for Restless Leg Syndrome led to risky sexual behavior and compulsive activities. (Representational) The patients who received medication for Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) which causes an irresible urge to move told BBC that taking the drug destroyed their lives. The report said that the dopamine agon drugs have been linked to “deviant” sexual behaviour. Although the side-effects leaflets also mention a general warning about increased libido and “altered” sexual interest, patients told BBC they did not what was causing a change in their behaviour. Dangerous side effectsWhile some exhibited risky sex behaviours, others claimed they felt compelled to gamble or shop with any past experience of such activities. One patient, who was prescribed the drug Ropinirole after she developed RLS during her pregnancy, said she felt unprecedented sexual urges. Her relentless need to move led to sleeplessness and a crawling sensation under her skin and the drug helped her for a year before it led to deviant behaviour. She claimed she began to look for sex wearing revealing clothes to dangerous locations, despite having a partner. “There remains an element in your head that knows what you’re doing is wrong, but it affects you to the point that you don’t know you’re doing it,” she told BBC. When she connected these urges to her medication and stopped taking it, she said the urges disappeared completely. Women more likely to be affectedImpulsive behaviours like gambling and increased sex drive are thought to affect between 6% to 17% of RLS patients, the report said. The drugs mimick dopamine or “happy hormone” behaviour but can over-stimulate these feelings and under-stimulate the fear of consequences, say experts. Another woman revealed she began selling videos of sex acts online and engaged in phone sex with strangers along with shopping compulsively which led her to rack up £30,000 of debt. A third woman who was prescribed two different dopamine agon drugs claimed her gambling debts ran as high as £80,000. RLS is believed to affect about one in 20 adults and women are about twice as likely to suffer as men. The women who spoke to BBC said their doctors never warned them against the serious side effects of the drugs. Dr Guy Leschziner, a neurolog told BBC that the drugs are effective but drug companies, health authorities and doctors need to better warn patients of these side effects. “Not everybody knows the kinds of really quite dramatic changes that can occur,” he said.