Right. It was November 2000, and I’d just been diagnosed as having PD. Following the advice of the Consultant Neurologist my GP prescribed me a new drug called “Cabergoline”, one of a relatively new class of drugs known as “dopamine agonists”. I stayed on this drug until late 2007. It appeared to reduce my symptoms, and increase my mobility significantly. As such we perceived it to be quite successful.
However, from 2001 onwards I started to develop a number of strange obsessions, compulsions and interests, none of which had ever entered my head prior to then, and certainly none of which I would ever have been interested in - quite the reverse. I became totally obsessed with gambling, spending, sex and fetishism. I suffered from delusions of grandeur, paranoia and hallucinations, and became violent and suicidal, being restrained from suicide at Beachy Head and the Humber Bridge. I also developed a strong transvestite tendency, and became very exhibitionistic.
I was out day and night at casinos, brothels, racecourses and betting shops, as well as spending a lot of time gambling on the internet. I went off on a Caribbean cruise alone on the QE2, and travelled to Las Vegas, Florida, Malta, Tenerife, Tunisia, Morocco and the Dominican Republic, as well as several driving tours around France and long Hogmanay breaks at Scotland’s top hotels. I hired piloted helicopters, and self-drive Bentleys, Ferraris, Porsches, TVRs and Jaguars. I bought 2 Jaguars, a TVR, a Land Rover, an Omega and a Tigra, as well as a quad bike and a motorbike.
I regularly travelled to London (first class), obtaining tickets from new contacts for Wimbledon tennis finals, top football and boxing matches and all the top shows, concerts, operas and ballets. Naturally I stayed in the best hotels and ate at the finest restaurants. I also bought directors’ box memberships at two football clubs.
None of this high living, gambling, hypersexuality, fetishism, violence or attention seeking made any sense at the time, and I knew I was behaving completely out of character. However I was totally driven down these paths and unable to control the compulsions whatsoever. It went on and on, and I found myself in police stations on several occasions. I also spent a few days in a voluntary psychiatric observation ward, but discharged myself.
To feed all of these obsessions needed money, in a never-ending supply. Having previously had an A1 credit record I was able to accumulate 15 credit cards and 2 bank accounts with generous overdraft facilities, all of which I utilised to (and beyond) their limits.
To sum up, I ultimately ended up losing my house, getting divorced, losing my job and company car, and in debt to the tune of around £400,000. My son (now 21) has refused to speak to me for years, and I now live in a cheap rented inner city slum.
In 2007 I discovered (by myself, on the Internet) that research was showing links between “dopamine agonist” (DA) medication and compulsive disorders. These issues had never been discussed with me by my GP, Neurologist or PD Specialist Nurses, even though they all knew of the problems I was having. I’d told them at all of my regular PD appointments about all of my weird escapades and enormous expenditure, as my medical file confirms. That PD team were also always updated by other agencies whenever I found myself in police stations or psychiatric wards.
Digging deeper into the research I discovered that the DA manufacturers had informed neurological, medical and pharmacological circles in 2002 that DAs carried a risk of obsessive/compulsive side effects. The chance of being affected was estimated at 1 in 7, with most only being “slightly” affected. Cases as serious as mine were considered very rare, but not quantified.
The details of the research, and thus the dangers of dopamine agonists, were in the public domain by 2003, and indeed appear on the BBC website for 8 August 2003.
However despite the fact that my neurologist MUST have become aware of the DA problem by 2002-3, and that he KNEW both that he was prescribing DAs to me AND that I was suffering from severe obsessive/compulsive disorders on a massive scale, the research results were NEVER made known to me. Had I not found out FOR MYSELF about the research I would undoubtedly still be on Cabergoline now.
As it was, we agreed I should come off the drug straight away. Immediately I stopped taking it all of the side effects I'd been experiencing stopped. I mean IMMEDIATELY, after all those years.
Prior to taking Cabergoline I was on £50,000 pa as a successful IT Senior Executive. By now, had this drug not effectively made me “mad” and forced me into retirement, I could reasonably have expected to be on around £80,000 pa. I had a large detached house by the sea in Sussex which was almost paid for, and a son at a private school. I am now penniless, with various debt collectors still looking for me.
Whilst completely “mad”, and as part of my desperation for more and more cash with which to gamble and spend, I also carried out (in early 2007) a £45,000 fraud, which was heard at Crown Court in October 2009. Despite extensive efforts by the Police and Crown Prosecution Service to get me banged up for 2 years and all my property confiscated, 2 eminent Professors of Neurology testified on my behalf that the DA drug had completely taken over my mind, rendering me unable to know right from wrong, and removing from me all free will.
The judge ruled in my favour, and I was freed.
