Abilify patients claim they can’t stop gambling. Now lawyers are investigating research suggesting compulsive gambling is one of the antidepressant drug’s side effects.

In one of many Abilify gambling lawsuits, plaintiff Kelly G. states that she took Abilify between February 2012 and October 2015, and claims that she began compulsively gambling after she started taking the drug.

Allegedly, Kelly suffered an economic loss of $75,000 because she could not stop gambling. She claimed that this compulsion was caused by her use of Abilify. She claims that the affect of the drug on her brain constitutes neuropsychiatric and physical injury. She aims to hold the makers of Abilify liable for her injuries.

Abilify’s Side Effects

Abilify is a common prescription drug used to treat depression, bipolar I disorder, and schizophrenia. The drug was discovered in the late 1990s, and was introduced into the American market in 2002. It is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squib Company, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. LTD, and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical Inc.

Numerous consumers claim that the drug causes severe compulsive side effects like compulsive gambling, and that the drug companies failed to sufficiently warn American patients of the risks. As the complaints mount, they have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation attempting to hold the drug companies accountable for allegedly concealing significant dangers of the drug and causing patient injuries.

The Abilify multidistrict litigation claims that in 2012,  after the European Medicines Agency required them to do so, the drug’s manufacturers warned European users that some Abilify patients were reportedly unable to stop gambling. In 2015, Canadian regulators required a similar warning for Canadian patients, which warned patients that the drug was linked to the development of compulsive behaviors including an inability to stop gambling.

However, the drug companies allegedly did not make the same effort to warn American patients until 2016, when the FDA issued a warning that the drug could cause “compulsive urges” including gambling. At this point, the labeling for American audiences of the drug was updated to include “gambling” in the risks and potential side effects.

The Abilify multidistrict litigation claims that the drug manufacturers knew that Abilify could cause compulsive behaviors, like gambling, and concealed this information from American patients and medical professionals for many years with the goal of increasing their profits. Allegedly, the companies knowingly endangered the health of patients by concealing this information. Many patients state that had they known that the drug could cause compulsive gambling, they would not have taken the drug.

Allegedly, the drug can cause a number of compulsive behaviors, and gambling is only one of them linked to Abilify. Allegedly, some patients have experienced compulsive urges to binge eat, shop, and have sex. Many patients claimed that they did not know why they suddenly could not stop their behavior without knowing that it was linked to their Abilify use.

In patients who already have a tendency to gamble and engage in compulsive behaviors, their habits can get worse.

The Abilify Compulsive Gambling Side Effect Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-01385-MCR-CJK, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division.