Expert urges greater monitoring of side-effect of drug used to treat depression, psychosis and schizophrenia
Rachel Hall wrote:
“Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones, a leading psychiatrist who runs the clinic, said more awareness needed to be raised, as patients were not being warned by many GPs prescribing the drug, and mental health teams were failing to monitor whether people were developing addictions.
“This is not just any side-effect – it can come with a risk of losing your own home. What we constantly see is that not enough people know about this. I gave a recent lecture to all the psychiatrists in my trust and a very large proportion had never heard about it,” she said. “We constantly hear about mental health teams not being aware. More needs to be done to prevent people from being put on aripirazole without being warned and monitored.”
The National Problem Gambling Clinic’s audit of its patients for 2022 found that nearly 9% were taking the drug, or 30 out of 359. Bowden-Jones said they typically were not aware of the connection between aripiprazole and problem gambling.”
National Problem Gambling Clinic