1. Indication

2. Wonder drugs


3. Dopamine Hits


4. Big Pharma, Big Secret


5. Restless


6. Chasing Losses


16 February 2026


When Freddie's dad Bill is detected with Parkinson's, his medication gives him a new lease of life. He begins ticking things off his senior citizen bucket list - taking a trip, skydiving, golf.


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


BBC Investigations correspondent Noel Titheradge has invested more than a year speaking with people whose behaviour altered drastically after taking a classification of prescription drugs called .


These drugs boost dopamine activity in the brain - they were prescribed more than 1.5 million times in the UK in 2015 to treat Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.


But they have well recognized negative effects - around 1 in 6 people who take them establish impulse control disorders, which can include hypersexuality, binge eating, compulsive gambling and shopping.


If these negative effects have been known about for decades, why weren't some clients and their households properly alerted or monitored?