Antipsychotic Drug Sales Skyrocket amid Health Concerns
Antipsychotic Drug Sales Skyrocket amid Health Concerns – Abilify, or aripiprazole, is an “atypical antipsychotic,” a class of drugs that debuted in the 1990s as a safer, more humane means of curbing psychosis in people with schizophrenia.
But over the past decade, manufacturers of these drugs have successfully pushed for their use in far more common mental illnesses, such as dementia, childhood conduct disorders, and especially depression, despite concerns over serious side effects. Sales of aripiprazole and its competitors, Seroquel and Zyprexa, have skyrocketed. At more than $450 a bottle, Abilify was prescribed to nearly 9 million Americans in 2014 and grossed $7.8 billion — making it the second best-selling drug in the US.
Many psychiatrists and scientists worry about this antipsychotic boom. They point out that there’s limited evidence of the drugs’ usefulness in treating depression over the long term, and that they have serious side effects, such as sedation, dramatic weight gain, and an increased risk of diabetes. In about one-quarter of cases, these drugs also cause akathisia, a pronounced feeling of restlessness described as making you want to jump out of your skin.
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