Lack of impulse control is a side effect that can be caused by medicin against restless legs.
For the BBC, several women testify to oversexual behavior, gambling abuse and shopping addiction as a result of the medication.
– It had terrible consequences for my family, says a woman who was affected.
20 women in the UK tell BBC that they experienced worse impulse control after being medicated for Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). It is about risky sexual behaviors, shopping addictions and gambling abuse.
One of the women says she began to feel sexual drives she had never experienced before as a result of the medicine. She began to expose herself for men, and sought out risky sexual situations.
Another woman states that she had an unhealthy relationship with gambling – something that led to her liabilities at the equivalent of SEK 1 million.
– It had terrible consequences for my family, it was a vital sum. I didn’t know then that it wasn’t my fault, she says.
“Very few studies”
Those who are medicated for RLS receive so -called dopaminergic drugs, which affect the brain’s dopamine system. It is the same kind of drug given to patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Between ten and 25 percent of those who take the drugs experience impaired impulse control that increases the risk of addictive -like conditions, says doctoral student Mirjam Wolfschlag, who made a Swedish study on the subject, to Science and health. It can be excessive sexual behavior, shopping addiction, hot eating or gambling addiction.
The side effects are well known among Parkinson’s patients, but the knowledge of how people with RLS are affected is all the less.
-It is unfortunate as they are as affected as the Parkinsons patients but are not noticed in the same way, neither in health care nor in the research. Very few studies are done on RLS patients, she says.
It’s Restless Legs Syndrome
Restless Legs Syndrome is really called Willis-Ekbom’s disease.
It is a neurological disease and means that it is falling, tingling or crawling in your legs when you are still for a long time.
Other symptoms are that the legs may feel hot or cold, sleep problems or pain.
The disease is more common among women than men, and the symptoms often occur in pregnancy.
Lighter exercise can reduce the problems, but you may need to be medicated.
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“There is a lot of shame”
Several of the women that the BBC talked to state that it took several years before they realized that their new risky behaviors were linked to the medicine, saying that they were not informed about the side effects of doctors.
Mirjam Wolfschlag notes that more research is needed on patients with RLS – but also more communication about the side effects on impulse control in healthcare.
– On the part of the care, you are quite poor at asking patients if they experience problems with side effects about impulse control and patients usually do not address it because there is much shame about this type of behavior, she says.