Despite its popularity, the antipsychotic Abilify has been linked with Abilify gambling addiction issues, which can lead to terrible consequences for patients and their families.

Abilify Background

Abilify (also known by the name aripiprazole) is a widely used antipsychotic medication jointly manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Abilify brings in over $7.9 billion in annual sales.

Abilify has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat a variety of mental disorders, including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and Tourette’s syndrome. Abilify quickly rose in popularity, and now brings in billions of dollars each year.

Despite the fact that the use of Abilify is so widespread for certain mental disorders, the antipsychotic medication has actually been increasingly linked with serious Abilify risks, including Abilify gambling addiction.

Since millions of patients have been prescribed Abilify, any side effects of the drug could have far-reaching consequences. Indeed, for some of these patients, Abilify has caused serious and sometimes irreversible damage.

Many drug side effects include physical problems like rashes or nausea, but Abilify side effects include impulse control problems like compulsive gambling and shopping addictions, as well as sex addiction. While these risks do not cause the kind of physical damage that many the side effects of many drugs do, compulsive behaviors like these can have terrible consequences for patients and their families.

Abilify Gambling Addiction

Compulsive gambling can be so severe that people who suffer from it are driven to gamble even when they do not have the financial capacity to do so. Because of this, some gamble with credit cards or borrow money, which can land patients in extremely steep debt. This may not cause physical harm, but can certainly ruin lives.

Shopping addictions, another problem linked with Abilify, function in a similar manner: a person with a serious shopping addiction may be spending far more money than they should, or even more than they actually have.

Indeed, Abilify gambling addiction and shopping compulsions naturally lend themselves to becoming financially destructive.

On top of these financial issues, these compulsive behaviors can tear a person away from their family, making them unable to function as they normally would.

The FDA has found at least 185 case reports linking Abilify to impulse control problems since 2002. Abilify gambling addiction was the most common of these compulsions.

According to the FDA, “Pathological gambling was the most common (164 cases), but other compulsive behaviors including compulsive eating, spending or shopping and sexual behaviors were also reported.”

The FDA announced in May 2016 an update to Abilify’s label that would note the drug’s link with “compulsive or uncontrollable urges to gamble, binge eat, shop and have sex.”

Filing an Abilify Gambling Addiction Lawsuit

Over forty Abilify compulsion lawsuits, many claiming Abilify gambling addiction problems, have so far been filed against Abilify’s manufacturers across the country.

If you or someone you know has been impacted by impulse control behaviors like Abilify gambling addiction or shopping compulsion after taking Abilify or a similar antipsychotic drug, you may be eligible to file an Abilify gambling addiction lawsuit.