Welcome to the Dopamine Agonist Action Group

The Dopamine Agonist Action Group (DAAG) is a volunteer-led campaign advocating for patients and families affected by dopamine agonist medications and their side effects.

What are dopamine agonists?

Dopamine agonists are a family of drugs prescribed for conditions including Parkinson’s disease, Restless Legs Syndrome, certain endocrine disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, and some mental health conditions.

While these medications can provide important clinical benefits, they have also been associated with serious and often under-recognised behavioural and psychological side effects, including impulse control disorder (ICD), dependency, withdrawal difficulties, and — in Restless Legs Syndrome — worsening physical symptoms over time, known as augmentation.

Why this matters

For some patients, dopamine agonist side-effects have led to compulsive spending, pathological gambling, hypersexuality, and profound changes in behaviour, judgement, and personality — sometimes with devastating personal, financial, psychological, and relational consequences. Some individuals have lost their livelihoods, their dignity, their liberty and, in some cases, their lives.

Many patients say they were not sufficiently warned about these side-effects or had effective monitoring and safeguarding in place.

Harms are often not recognised early, in part because these medications may impair insight and self-recognition, and because experiences linked to sex, gambling, mental health, and compulsive behaviour are frequently hidden by shame, stigma, and embarrassment.

The scale of the issue

ICD: More than 1.5 million prescriptions for dopamine agonists are issued in England each year across all conditions. In Parkinson’s disease, the largest study estimates that 17.1% (around 1 in 6) of patients taking dopamine agonists will develop an impulse control disorder, with some later studies reporting even higher rates.

Augmentation: The updated Mayo Clinic treatment algorithm (May 2026) estimates that augmentation occurs in approximately 42–70% of patients treated with dopamine agonists for Restless Legs Syndrome over a 10-year period.

Our mission

Our work builds upon growing public and media attention surrounding dopamine agonist harms, including the BBC Radio 4 series Impulsive. We aim to deepen understanding of these harms and turn awareness into meaningful action.

DAAG is an independent patient-led campaigning and advocacy organisation focused on medication safety, patient protection, justice for affected individuals and families, greater awareness, and improvements in prescribing practice surrounding dopamine agonist medications. We are a volunteer-led team of experienced campaigners, former patients and carers with lived experience of these drugs and their harms.

We work in close co-operation with RLS UK where our aims align. RLS UK is a registered charity dedicated to supporting people living with Restless Legs Syndrome and improving awareness, understanding and care for the condition.

OUR AIMS & OBJECTIVES - OUR VALUES

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We are a new campaign and our website is still under development — please stay tuned for further updates as the campaign grows!

Important information

We are an advocacy organisation and do not provide medical advice. Patients should consult an appropriately qualified healthcare professional before making decisions regarding prescribed medication or treatment.

Meet the Campaign Team