A heterosexual from France has won a lawsuit claiming a prescription drug used to treat Parkinsonâs disease turned him into a raving gay-sex addict.
A judge in Rennes ordered GlaxoSmithKline to pay 197,000 euros ($256,000) to married father of two Didiet Jambart, 52, who began taking the drug Requip in 2003,
The International Business Times reports Jambart developed âuncontrollableâ urges shortly after starting to take the meds: posting naked pictures on the Internet, cross-dressing, and engaging in high-risk sex with anonymous men. Jambert says he attempted suicide multiple times and was actually raped as a result of his altered state of mind.
âMy family didnât understand what was going onâme, a former councilor and bank manager,â he said.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Jambertâs ire with GSK is that the company didnât put a warning on the packaging about âincreased sexual urges and behaviorsâ until 2006. Â The behavior apparently stopped shortly after he ceased taking Requip.
âIt has been a seven-year battle to get it recognized, with the limited means at our disposal, that GSK lied to us and shattered our lives,â he said after the verdict. âBut itâs not as though weâve won the lottery. This will never replace the years of pain.â
Are these people looking for excuses to deny their sexuality? Or can physiological changes to the body alter sexual orientation? And if so, how long until someone starts developing a drug or procedure that can turn you straight?
Mjl-428
SUUUUUUUUURE. It was all the drugs that did it
Charles175
Yea, S-u-u-u-u-u-r!! Horse puckey I say. What’s next, Viagra, or Enzyte or Extenze? What a load of crock.
Stache1
Well, that’s one way to come out of the closet. It’s not me. It’s that damn drug.
pierre
I take Requip and it has the opposite effect on me. It decreases sexual appetite. And it sure as hell doesn’t make me attracted to women.
William Hooper
@QUEERTY:I used to be logged in as Guillermo3.What happened,QUEERTY?
Kevin B
If we accept that being gay has a physiological component, which we must if we want to assert that genetics has any impact, then it stands to reason that psychoactive drugs can effect sexuality.
William Hooper
@William Hooper: @William Hooper:WELL,QUEERTY,What DID HAPPEN to Guillermo3?
2eo
@William Hooper: Go into your profile and add your nickname. It will change to your nickname.
GeriHew
Actually sexual orientation can change for all sorts of reasons. It may well be totally fixed for life for some people, but it sure isn’t for everyone.
Parkinson’s drugs are notorious for causing all manner of side effects in different patients, and any doctor in charge of prescribing them should be aware of this. It sounds like those in charge of this patient’s medication were very negligent if he was complaining about this issue for years before it was dealt with.
William Hooper
@Kevin B:I think you may be right,
Kevin B. Parkinson’s and Depression are strange,mysterious,and
complicated diseases.My father had both.As far as I know,
treatments and medications didn’t affect his sexuality,but they
and the diseases did affect his behavior,right down to how and
where he slept/what he said,how he thought.The trick,the
difficult,the IMPORTANT THING,I think is to control,as much as one
is able,the kind of treatments/medications one receives:There are
a lot of quacks,some sincere,some purely manipulative,some
psychotic.For depression,my father had a psychotic quack[also a
respected M.D.]who hypnotized him with injections,prescribed almost
lethally strong sedatives,and exercised a slave/master relationship.
For his eventual cure,it took a good psychiatrist and electroshock
treatments.Diseased,or not,our minds are capable of taking us to
all kinds of places,many of which we could never consciously imagine,
or control.
William Hooper
@2eo: Thanks,2eo! I’ll try it later.
William Hooper,Guillermo3
nineinchnail
I read this in the paper the other day. Nearly peed myself laughing.
CivicMinded
Speaking of poor excuses for bad behavior, 40 years ago the culprit was another word that started with D:
“The Devil made me do it.”
— Geraldine as portrayed by the late, the great, Flip Wilson
jmmartin
Remember the black comedian who cross-dressed and became famous for saying, “The Devil made me wear that dress!” What is the difference here? He came out briefly, then went back into the closet. Now he wants money for it.
pscheck2
you know it seems being gay, naturally, is coming under attack from various quatrters! I corre3sponded with a person who posts to a gay website telling me he has a boy-toy he fu*kes on a regular basis, but claims the BT is str8! The BT is married and has two kids and likes women! The BT basis his contention on the fact he is not turned on by men per se only is turned on by my correspondant friend! And then there are thoes who claim they are BI and are equally attracted to both men and women! Personally, I don’t buy it!. To me they are gay; they enjoy sex with a man, but find a relationship with a woman, socially gratifying and image building with their peer group! Then Kinsey has sex preference as something on a curve; like 50 [degrees] of gay! So, if you are gay, you are a minority within a minority
Ste
Wow. So this pill not only causes you to cross-dress, it makes you get raped. That’s one hell of a pill! So, he basically got paid $256,000 to sleep around. How to be a prostitute in a round-about way.
Guillermo3
@pscheck2: pscheck2,You make some
good points,but I have a question and a few qualms:The Question}
when hasn’t being gay “naturally”,as you put it,been under attack?
One the contrary,I think that being openly gay is easier/more accepted
the past 2 or more generations than ever.The concept of being naturally
gay,or “born that way” is relatively recent,and to my mind a welcome
change from the century of convoluted[and incorrect] psychological,
or physiological attempts to understand/define the causes of
homosexuality.
My qualms with your statements are that you over-simplify.One
achievement of Kinsey and his successors was their understanding that
the range,the spectrum of human sexual orientation is incredibly varied
and mutable.Some people ARE bisexual in orientation and in practice.
Many go through phases:Early same sex attraction and activity replaced
later with strictly heterosexual orientation is not at all unusual.
The reverse is also sometimes true:famously.Luchino Visconti was a
voracious womanizer up to his middle age and an equally voracious
homosexual afterwards.In sum:It ain’t that simple.
MadisonAubie
I don’t believe that something that is genetic can be altered without changing the genes that comprise that aspect of our nature. I don’t believe there’s a drug that can make a right-handed person left-handed. Most people now understand that sexuality is hardwired into our brains. There may be a drug developed that can alter our behavior, but I don’t believe a drug will ever change our sexuality. If I have to take a drug to make me act straight, I’d rather be the person I was born to be. If a gay to straight drug was developed, what would the next drug be? How soon would it be before we became a drug created society? Not athletic enough? Take a drug. Wanna be taller? Take a drug. Want your kids to grow taller? Give ’em a drug.
viveutvivas
I’ll have what he’s having.
Alan down in Florida
Sounds to me like the Requip might have affected his impulse control center of the brain. That would explain the changes in his behavior. It would not explain the impulses he had been successfully controlling that were acted out. Kind of like doing things when you’re drunk that you would never have the balls to do if you were sober.
nevereclipsed81
Awesome. Well we welcome Michael J Fox to the club any time he’s ready. He’s adorable, he’s had Parkinson’s for years and still hasn’t lost his good looks.
Dumdum
Well some guy stuck his dick in my mouth and now I am gay. Can I sue him???
Mike
He would make an excellent Republican in the U.S.
Kevin B
@MadisonAubie: Genes are not magical blueprints. All they do is produce proteins. There’s no reason such a drug couldn’t have the same effect as a protein. So yes, drugs can easily change your physiological process such as to override a genetic predisposition. Whether or not you’re comfortable with that idea has no bearing on whether or not it is possible.
Guillermo3
@Dumdum: There are several important
questions that will have legal ramifications for your suit,Dumdum:
1]Was his penis clean? 2]Was he cut,or uncut? 3]Did you enjoy
the experience? 4]If your answer to question 3 is “Yes”,Were you
noticeably demonstrative of your enjoyment?If your answer is “Yes”,
you my have compromised your case. 5]How much money does he have?
6]Is he straight?
If your answer to question #5 is:”A lot”,or to question #6 is “Yes”,
you probably have a case.
If the answers to both # 5 are:”A lot”and #6:”Yes”}Sue the Bastard.
‘
the other Greg
It’s interesting that the drug didn’t turn him into one of those prissy, monogamous gays who post here on Queerty. Noooo – it turned him into a SLUT SLUT SLUT! Maybe it was just the dosage?
@nevereclipsed81: Right, I was thinking about Michael J. Fox too. Hey if he turns gay, that would be one more thing for Rush Limbaugh to make fun of him about! Maybe Rush will kick a puppy after that.
jcrussous
Well…am waiting for the gay person taking this med or has a stroke turn str8! Then, maybe I’ll believe it! đ
GeriHew
For anyone who actually bothers to take a look there’s actually quite a lot of stuff on the Internet about Parkinson’s drugs causing drastic side effects. Especially problems with hallucinations, hypersexual behaviour and compulsive gambling.
E.G.
A former IT manager told yesterday how he blew ÂŁ400,000 on a luxury lifestyle and became a sex-crazed transvestite because of a drug he took to combat the effects of Parkinsonâs disease.
Peter Shepherd, 60, was prescribed the drug Cabergoline by his GP in 2001 and had an astonishing personality change that devastated his life.
He became a violent, attention-seeking, sex-addicted gambler with delusions of grandeur and an overwhelming compulsion to spend money he didnât have.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334049/Pete-Shepherd-Cabergoline-effects-turned-sex-crazed-transvestite.html#ixzz2E0g6IhVG
Parkinsonâs medication blamed for sexual offences
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/07/parkinsons-medication-blamed-for-sexual-offences/
ETC.
Jambart may well have some latent bisexual tendencies, but that doesn’t mean he wanted to act on them and cheat on his wife, or that he ever would have done so if he had not had the misfortune to get Parkinson’s (which is a terrible and incurable disease ) and have taken Requip and/or similar drugs because of it.