Arts & Entertainment
Man claims painkillers turned him gay, says he won’t stop taking them
Scott Purdy believes the drug Lyrica changed his sexuality

Scott Purdy (Screenshot via YouTube)
Scott Purdy says that he was a straight 23-year-old man who was attracted to his girlfriend before he started taking painkillers.
After a go-karting accident, Purdy was prescribed Lyrica (Pregabalin) for pain. In an interview with British TV show “This Morning,” Purdy says he started to feel sexually attracted toward men until he decided to stop taking the medication.
“All I craved was male attention so I thought it was a bit weird and stopped taking it just in case,” Purdy says. “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 explains that he had “quite a few” girlfriends in the past and was never attracted to men. However, he did recall kissing another boy when he was a teenager out of curiosity but says he decided it wasn’t for him.
He continued that he isn’t in contact with his family but when he told his friends about his sexuality change they were confused.
“When I put it on Facebook about a week and a half ago I didn’t say the reason why, and everyone was saying they didn’t see it coming and it’s a great shock because it was so out of character,” Purdy says.
Purdy broke up with his girlfriend and now says he doesn’t want to stop taking the medication because he’s happy.
Dr. Ranj Singh also appeared on the show to advise that the medication didn’t change Purdy’s sexuality but that the medication’s side effect of calming nerves let Purdy be his “true self.”
“These feelings were probably always there, and sexuality is complex,” Singh says. “It’s not black and white. Different people experience it differently, and some people are fluid.”
Singh, who is gay, also gave his own experience with the drug.
“I’ve been on Pregabalin myself,” he says. “I’m sorry to say it didn’t make me any gayer.”
Watch below.
The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)








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The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)









Books
Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?
‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia
‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages
Mom called you in a panic the other day.
She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.
These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.
You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?
Chin says maybe, yes.
He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.
Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.
Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.
Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.
Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”
Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.
Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.
Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.
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