How prescription drugs turned Sally Gardner into crazed shopaholic: Best-selling children’s author’s £500,000 spree included £3,000 bathtub, five pairs of same shoes and 10 dog beds

A bestselling children’s book author has revealed how prescription medication left her struggling with a compulsive shopping addiction that left her reeling in more than £500,000.

Sally Gardner began spending recklessly after being prescribed dopamine agonist medications for Restless Leg Syndrome; He splurged on luxury items such as a £3,000 bathtub, designer prints and buying the same items over and over again.

At the height of his success, Gardner, who sold 2.5 million books and won the Carnegie Medal, initially believed that his lavish lifestyle depended solely on eventually making good money.

‘All of a sudden I’m in a different place and making really good money for the first time in my life,’ Gardner said.

But behind the scenes, their spending has skyrocketed. He began hiding his purchases, lying to friends and accumulating debts, eventually forcing him to sell his house in north London and move to a smaller flat.

‘I had no idea what was happening to me. Sally asked the hosts of the BBC podcast Ready to Talk: “Who are you? What do you do?” he said.

Even then, what he described as the ‘drum beating’ of his compulsive behavior did not stop and tens of thousands of dollars were spent on an interior designer.

At one point, a concerned friend even went from store to store asking staff not to sell him anything.

Gardner began spending recklessly after being prescribed dopamine agonist medications for Restless Leg Syndrome

Gardner said he believed he was ‘going crazy’ because he didn’t know the medication he was prescribed could trigger such side effects.

Dopamine agonist medications are widely used to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs Syndrome by increasing dopamine activity in the brain.

However, drugs are associated with impulsive behavior such as shopping, gambling and hypersexuality; Some patients incur large debts or their relationships break down.

Gardner said she bought the same items over and over to chase the dopamine hit, including five pairs of shoes and ten dog beds for her Yorkshire Terrier.

‘You buy something and you get a hit of dopamine from it and you want that feeling over and over again,’ he explains.

Her case is one of hundreds highlighted by the BBC, in which patients or their families describe the devastating consequences.

Many said they did not make the connection between their behavior and drugs until it was too late.

The issue is currently being investigated by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Gardner, who only realized why this happened years later after listening to a BBC podcast, said he felt his life had been ‘hijacked’ by the drug.

He has since reduced his dosage but continues to use the medication because it is the only treatment that works, and he says he continues to battle the urges every day.

Earlier this year the widow of a Parkinson’s patient told how her husband became a ‘sex addict’ overnight due to one of his prescription drugs.

Jane Ryde said he began collecting pornography and solicited sex at least three times a day; these were compulsive side effects that carried no significant warning in the leaflets supplied with the drug Pramipexole.

Although it helped her symptoms, she said she would be ‘horrified’ if she discovered what it was doing to her.

‘Overnight he turned into someone I didn’t recognize,’ he said.

‘He was a hard-working man and I think he became addicted to sex; very compulsive behavior collecting porn snippets and pornography.

‘He couldn’t see what the problem was. I tried to talk to him about it and it ended in arguments, so I decided to keep a diary of everything that was going on.

‘…The consultant has just told him that this is unacceptable behavior and that’s where the matter ends as far as the consultant is concerned.’

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that he began surfing the internet between 1.30am and 2am.