A British man claims painkillers turned
him gay.
Appearing on Britain's This Morning,
Scott Purdy, 23, said that he was straight and attracted to his
girlfriend before he started taking painkillers.
Purdy was prescribed Lyrica
(Pregabalin) for pain after a go-karting accident. He said he
decided to stop taking the medication because he began feeling
attractions toward men.
“All I craved was male attention so I
thought it was a bit weird and stopped taking it just in case,”
Purdy
said on the program. “As soon as that happened my sexual
attraction towards my ex-girlfriend went back up and I was more
intimate and cuddly and it was normal again. But the pain started
building back up and so I started taking Pregabalin again.”
Purdy said that he's since broken up
with his girlfriend and is happy.
An openly gay doctor, Dr. Ranj Singh,
also appeared on the show. He explained that the medication didn't
change Purdy's sexuality. Instead, he said, the painkillers calmed
his nerves, allowing Purdy to be his “true self.”
“These feelings were probably always
there, and sexuality is complex,” Singh said. “It's not black
and white. Different people experience it differently, and some
people are fluid.”
“I've been on Pregabalin myself. I'm
sorry to say it didn't make me any gayer,” he added.