Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you can get hopped up on your restless leg syndrome meds, play Candy Crush until you get addicted, and then get a £170,000 payout after blaming the medication for your addiction.
Not satire!
The woman was taking a dopamine agonist drug called pramipexole, and it was prescribed at double the recommended dose. Dopamine agonist drugs have been shown to trigger impulse control disorders in up to 17% of patients, which is the argument here for why she became addicted to - I still can't get this out without giggling - Candy Crush.
Candy Crush is a free game, but it must be noted that you can pay to unlock certain features in the game. It isn't clear whether this woman paid extra or not.
From GBN:
Within weeks of starting the medication, she began playing Candy Crush obsessively.
She also "later developed a compulsion for virtual slot machine games."
And this is why the government is doling out £170,000 - because a lady took prescription drugs, her doctor never told her about the 17% chance she'd become impulsive, and then she got addicted to Candy Crush.
Which begs the question:
What about all the people who've been sitting on the couch playing Candy Crush since 2012? Do they get a payout too?
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