People using a popular antipsychotic drug are reporting an uncontrollable urge to binge eat, gamble, and have sex

Flickr / Jamie McCaffrey

Patients taking the antipsychotic drug Abilify have reported uncontrollable urges to gamble, binge eat, shop, and have sex, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a warning Tuesday.

The drug, also known as aripiprazole, is used to treat schizophrenia, and can be used in combination with other drugs to treat depression.

The problem appears quite rarely. In the 13 years since the drug was approved, there have been only 167 reports of patients experiencing significant impulse-control problems, the FDA said. In the United States, 1.6 million patients received Abilify prescriptions last year.

“We decided that a warning would be warranted,” said Sandy Walsh, a spokesperson for the FDA.

The warning comes amid pending class-action lawsuits against the drug’s manufacturer, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, which allege that the company didn’t properly warn patients about the possible impulse-control issues. Otsuka partners with Bristol-Myers Squibb to manufacture the drug.

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