A Risperdal lawsuit has been filed in federal court, alleging an Alabama man suffered injuries including unnatural male breast growth after taking the antipsychotic drug as a child to treat his ADHD. He is one of dozens of men suing drug makers for negligently marketing the drug off label.

Risperdal (risperidone) is a prescription medication manufactured by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., formerly known as Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Plaintiff Jacoby M. alleges in the Risperdal lawsuit that he has suffered long-lasting physical, mental, and emotional damage from his Risperdal gynecomastia condition, which caused him to develop male breasts, also known as man boobs.

Jacoby says he was originally prescribed Risperdal at the age of 7 to help manage his childhood ADHD. While this atypical antipsychotic drug is FDA approved to treat schizophrenia and other conditions in adults, it was not approved to treat children at the time Jacoby was prescribed the drug. Despite this, drug makers marketed Risperdal off label to treat children in order to increase their revenue, Jacoby alleges in his Risperdal lawsuit.

His allegation is not unsubstantiated. In 2013, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay a $2.2 billion Risperdal settlement to settle criminal and civil allegations brought by the Justice Department that it had improperly promoted the antipsychotic to older adults, children and people with developmental disabilities.

Since that Risperdal settlement, Jacoby has become one of dozens of men suing Johnson & Johnson and Janssen for negligently and fraudulently marketing Risperdal to them and their parents when they were children. Their Risperdal lawsuits say the drug makers’ actions caused them to experience unnatural male breast growth that caused them significant emotional trauma, and sometimes expensive surgery to correct.

Jacoby’s Risperdal Gynecomastia Lawsuit is Case No. A-196444, in the U.S. District Court for Jefferson County Alabama.

What is Gynecomastia?

Gynecomastia is a medical condition in which a males breast will become unnaturally enlarged, typically seen in adolescent boys, such as those young men taking Risperdal.

While gynecomastia can occur naturally as a result of low testosterone, in the case of Risperdal gynecomastia, there is a higher that average rate of adolescent male Risperdal consumers developing male breasts only after use of the Janssen drug, according to lawsuit allegations.

The young men represented in the majority of Risperdal gynecomastia lawsuits did not have a history of low testosterone and also did not have a medical or genetic predisposition to gynecomastia, meaning Risperdal might be the main culprit of their gynecomastia condition.

While gynecomastia is physically benign, it is the source of great psychological stress for young men and may lead to ongoing issues with body image and body acceptance.

Some symptoms of gynecomastia include:

• Nipple discharge
• Tenderness in the breast area
• Pain in breast tissue
• Swelling of breast tissue and nipples

What is Risperdal?

Risperdal (also known as risperidone) is an atypical, antipsychotic medication, first manufactured and sold J&J’s Janssen in 1993. Since then, Risperdal has been used by thousands of individuals to treat certain mental health disorders, including: schizophrenia, bipolar mania, and occasionally autistic disorder.

Because Risperdal is designed to block dopamine in order to manage certain mental disorders, an individual’s pituitary gland may release prolactin as a response. The prolactin hormone then stimulates milk production, which in men results in gynecomastia side effects.