[imagesource:buy-pharma]
Brittian’s NHS has been forced to pay out £70,000 (R1.5 million) to a man who developed an “uncontrollable” gambling problem after he was given a common Parkinson’s drug.
Philip Stevens, a 66-year-old from Hampshire, received the massive payout from his GP following a lawsuit after he was given the drug Ropinirole, which led him to develop an impulse control disorder that saw him spend thousands on gambling websites and expensive clothes.
According to NHS warnings, Ropinirole can cause patients to experience impulse control issues, and patients are advised to contact a specialist nurse if they start “binge eating, gambling or shopping uncontrollably or having an unusually high sex drive”.
We don’t know about his sex drive, but Stevens had previously been a fan of horse racing, so when his GP prescribed him Ropinirole for a condition called restless legs syndrome, he was off to the races.
Stevens started showing signs of compulsive behaviours and started gambling more frequently and eventually “spiralled out of control”. He recalled regularly gambling using betting apps on his phone, waking up in the middle of the night to place bets, and betting on anything he could.
Over the course of four years, Mr Stevens spent thousands on gambling websites and remembered that eventually, he stopped caring about winning at all. He also started to shop compulsively for expensive clothes and accessories, spending thousands of pounds and was even compelled to go on three-day-long fishing trips every week.
“The things that I once enjoyed that became obsessions, such as fishing and horse racing, are now joyless because, with each one, a sense of guilt overcomes me.”
“I am not the same person as I was pre-Ropinirole.”
Finally, in October 2021, during a neurology review, the doctor asked Mr Stevens how he was feeling and especially if he had any adverse effects such as obsessive habits. He revealed that he had been gambling, and the doctor recommended he cease taking Ropinirole immediately.
However, his troubles did not end there; Stevens said when he called his GP to advise them he was stopping the drug, no advice was given about withdrawal symptoms, which include changes in mood, tiredness, sweating and pain.
Although Stevens’ compulsion to gamble and buy clothes subsided two days after stopping the medication, he then experienced five months of withdrawal, which included severe exhaustion, paranoia and hallucinations so severe he did not recognise his house, wife or children.
“Along with the shame of my compulsive behaviour, [it] has mentally drained me and left me very withdrawn. On a positive level, my marriage has survived, and I am beginning to look forward more than backwards, and maybe one day I will believe that what happened to me was not my fault.”
Law firm Leigh Day, who also settled the case of a 51-year-old woman who developed impulse control behaviour after taking Ropinirole, eventually helped Stevens secure a settlement for his troubles.
[source:independent]