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by BBC Radio 4
In Shadow World: Impulsive, Noel Titheradge uncovers the devastating side effects of a class of prescription drugs which can cause hypersexuality and compulsive gambling. Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.
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- Feb 13, 202613 min
Impulsive: 5. Restless
Lisa has Restless Legs Syndrome - it feels like her legs are on fire and they keep moving around. It’s affecting her sleep, so she’s pleased to hear that there’s a treatment: a commonly used Parkinson’s medication called Pramipexole. The prescriber doesn’t mention any side effects.But Lisa’s dosage of Pramipexole keeps increasing as her symptoms keep returning, and she starts behaving in ways that feel out of character. After an argument with her husband, she starts an affair with a man she meets online. Soon she’s meeting strangers for sex.And even while her personality’s changing, her condition keeps getting worse…Details of organisations offering help and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.If you have any concerns about medication you’re taking, speak to your doctor.Presenter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Matt Willis A BBC News Long Form Audio production
- Feb 13, 202614 min
Impulsive: 4. Big Pharma, Big Secret
When BBC Investigations correspondent Noel Titheradge first started looking into this story, he set about finding insiders who knew what had gone on inside the pharmaceutical companies that made them. He contacted former staff and officials, cold called potential whistleblowers - and then he got lucky. Someone shared an internal report from the drug company GlaxoSmithKline which revealed that they’d been aware of fifteen cases of “increased libido” in patients taking their dopamine agonist Ropinirole, including cases of paedophilia and indecent behaviour.The report had been published in 2003, three years before warnings appeared on patient leaflets - and thirteen years before Steve started taking the drug. Details of organisations offering help and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.If you have any concerns about medication you’re taking, speak to your doctor.Presenter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Matt Willis A BBC News Long Form Audio production
- Feb 13, 202613 min
Impulsive: 3. Dopamine Hits
Freddie finds out his dad’s been scammed - to his horror, he hears that his father Bill has been speaking to multiple women in Ghana who he’d met on Skype, and sent them £300,000.And Steve’s wife finds out about his camgirl habit when he makes a payment to one of the sites on their joint credit card.Neither Bill nor Steve has any idea why they’ve been behaving erratically.Noel meets retired neurologist Paul Morrish, who remembers that doctors were starting to notice their patients experiencing unusual side effects from dopamine agonist drugs as far back as the early 2000s. So why weren’t some patients being properly warned fifteen years later?And neuropsychiatry professor Valerie Voon from the University of Cambridge explains how dopamine affects our perception of reward vs risk - which means people taking dopamine agonists can be prone to taking more risks.Details of organisations offering help and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.If you have any concerns about medication you’re taking, speak to your doctor.Presenter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Matt Willis A BBC News Long Form Audio production
- Feb 13, 202614 min
Impulsive: 2. Wonder drugs
Not long after his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, Steve starts chatting to camgirls online. But soon he’s going on the sites every night, even logging on while his wife’s asleep next to him in bed. How long can he keep it a secret?Steve’s one of more than 200 people who contacted BBC Investigations correspondent Noel Titheradge about their experiences of side effects caused by dopamine agonist drugs.When medications turn out to have life-changing side effects, how do we balance the benefits with the risks?Details of organisations offering help and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.If you have any concerns about medication you’re taking, speak to your doctor.Presenter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Matt Willis A BBC News Long Form Audio production
- Feb 13, 202613 min
Impulsive: 1. Warning Signs
When Freddie’s dad Bill is diagnosed with Parkinson’s, his medication gives him a new lease of life. He starts ticking things off his retiree bucket list - travelling, skydiving, golf.But then Freddie notices that his previously sensible father has started behaving unusually.BBC Investigations correspondent Noel Titheradge has spent more than a year speaking to people whose behaviour changed radically after taking a category of prescription drugs called dopamine agonists.These drugs boost dopamine activity in the brain - they were prescribed more than 1.5 million times in the UK last year to treat Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.But they have well established side effects - around 1 in 6 people who take them develop impulse control disorders, which can include hypersexuality, binge eating, compulsive gambling and shopping.If these side effects have been known about for decades, why weren’t some patients and their families properly warned or monitored? Details of organisations offering help and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.If you have any concerns about medication you’re taking, speak to your doctor.Presenter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Matt Willis A BBC News Long Form Audio production
- Nov 7, 202529 min
Anatomy of a Cancellation: 6. Post Mortem
Katie Razzall considers the fallout from the controversy surrounding Kate Clanchy’s award-winning memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. She explores the deep divisions the case exposed: in publishing, on social media, and among writers. Has the industry changed? What is the cost of this controversy, and who gets to tell their story?In Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation, the BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall revisits a story that rocked the UK’s publishing industry in 2021. It led to what some saw as the unjustified cancellation of a prize-winning writer and teacher - but to others, was a long overdue reckoning for the world of publishing. It grew into a culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what.Anatomy of a Cancellation explores a range of different perspectives to consider how people now view one of the most controversial literary rows in recent memory.Presenter: Katie Razzall Producer: Charlotte McDonald Additional production: Octavia Woodward Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison Sound design and mix: James Beard Story editing: Meara Sharma Series producer: Matt Willis Senior news editor: Clare Fordham Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams Commissioning editor: Dan Clarke
- Nov 7, 202528 min
Anatomy of a Cancellation: 5. The Rewrite
A sensitivity reader Helen Gould speaks publicly for the first time, revealing the emotional and professional complexities of revising a book already in print.Katie Razzall interrogates the role of sensitivity readers, and asks: who gets to decide what’s acceptable in literature—and what happens when those boundaries shift?In Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation, the BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall revisits a story that rocked the UK’s publishing industry in 2021. It led to what some saw as the unjustified cancellation of a prize-winning writer and teacher - but to others, was a long overdue reckoning for the world of publishing. It grew into a culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what.Anatomy of a Cancellation explores a range of different perspectives to consider how people now view one of the most controversial literary rows in recent memory.Presenter: Katie Razzall Producer: Charlotte McDonald Additional production: Octavia Woodward Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison Sound design and mix: James Beard Story editing: Meara Sharma Series producer: Matt Willis Senior news editor: Clare Fordham Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams Commissioning editor: Dan ClarkeIt was a BBC Long Form Audio production for Radio 4.
- Nov 7, 202528 min
Anatomy of a Cancellation: 4. The Defence of Kate Clanchy
Although Kate Clanchy faces a torrent of criticism in the summer of 2021, many people supported her — fellow writers, journalists, and some of her own students. They say she has been misunderstood. Katie Razzall speaks to those who stood by her—including a former student who credits Kate Clanchy with empowering him and others through poetry and mentorship. In Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation, the BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall revisits a story that rocked the UK’s publishing industry in 2021. It led to what some saw as the unjustified cancellation of a prize-winning writer and teacher - but to others, was a long overdue reckoning for the world of publishing. It grew into a culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what.Anatomy of a Cancellation explores a range of different perspectives to consider how people now view one of the most controversial literary rows in recent memory.Presenter: Katie Razzall Producer: Charlotte McDonald Additional production: Octavia Woodward Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison Sound design and mix: James Beard Story editing: Meara Sharma Series producer: Matt Willis Senior news editor: Clare Fordham Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams Commissioning editor: Dan ClarkeIt was a BBC Long Form Audio production for Radio 4.
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About Shadow World
In Shadow World: Impulsive, Noel Titheradge uncovers the devastating side effects of a class of prescription drugs which can cause hypersexuality and compulsive gambling. Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.
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