1. Warning Signs

2. Wonder drugs


3. Dopamine Hits


4. Big Pharma, Big Secret


5. Restless


6. Chasing Losses


16 February 2026


When Freddie's daddy Bill is identified with Parkinson's, his medication offers him a brand-new lease of life. He begins ticking things off his retiree container list - travelling, skydiving, golf.


But then Freddie notifications that his formerly reasonable father has begun acting abnormally.


BBC Investigations reporter Noel Titheradge has invested more than a year talking to individuals whose behaviour altered drastically after taking a classification of prescription drugs called dopamine agonists.


These drugs increase dopamine activity in the brain - they were 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 negative effects - around 1 in 6 individuals who take them establish impulse control conditions, which can consist of hypersexuality, binge eating, compulsive betting and shopping.


If these negative effects have been understood about for years, why weren't some patients and their households correctly alerted or monitored?