Patient Develops Compulsive Behavior While Taking Antipsychotic Medication

Case Overview

This case involves a 26-year-old male patient with bipolar disorder and severe depression who was prescribed the antipsychotic aripipiprazole. This patient had a family history of bipolar disorder and alcoholism. While taking the antipsychotic medication, the patient experienced a host of compulsive behaviors, specifically pathological gambling and hypersexuality. The patient accrued significant debt from his compulsive gambling, which he asserted was a direct result of his medication use. An expert in pharmacology was sought to address the use of this specific medication, its mechanism of action, and its link to compulsive behavior.

Questions to the Psychiatry expert and their responses

Please briefly describe your knowledge and experience with antipsychotics such as aripiprazole.

I am a distinguished psychiatrist with a master's degree in obsessive and compulsive disorders and two doctoral degrees in the neuropsychopharmacology of addiction and compulsive behaviors. My published work has been cited 11,878 times and my h-index is 46, making me one of the leading neuropsychopharmacologists in the world. I have numerous national scientific awards and also have been listed among the best doctors in the USA. I have lectured and published on pharmacological effects of aripiprazole and compulsive behavior as well as the abuse liability of medications. I am an experienced forensic psychiatrist and well versed in providing detailed reports, responding to interrogatives, preparing reports, and testifying in court. I am quite familiar with aripiprazole, having studied it pharmacologically and having also prescribed aripiprazole clinically to patients.

Could you discuss aripiprazole's mechanism of action and any potential links to compulsive behavior?

Antipsychotics can increase compulsive behaviors, especially in vulnerable patients.

About the expert

This expert is board certified psychiatrist who served as the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. His research focus is in the psychopharmacology of addiction, integrating the neuroscience and behavioral aspects of addiction medicine and seeking to develop an understanding of the basic underpinnings of drug-seeking behavior and to devise effective treatments. In recognition of his academic, scholarly and professional achievement, he is a Fellow of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-psychopharmacologicum and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.