Another way Big Pharma can bleed you dry

It could be the best thing to happen to Las Vegas since Wayne Newton — a pill that can trigger some users into gambling all of their money away!

And it wasn’t invented as some devious experiment by casino owners to get more dough flowing into the slots or onto the table. Nope, it came right from the laboratories of Big Pharma.

You may remember the animated ads for the antidepressant Abilify that used to run all the time, the ones with the cartoon woman who sees her cartoon doctor about being depressed. She gets an Rx for Abilify and — ta-da! — she’s back in the swing of things.

“Results may vary,” the ads say, and that could be the most honest thing we’ve ever heard from a drugmaker. Because for some taking Abilify, the results are uncontrollable urges to gamble, shop, eat, and have sex.

While we’ve told you about plenty of side effects from prescription and OTC drugs, this may well be one of the most bizarre.

And it’s something that anyone who is being treated for depression needs to be aware of – because despite everything, Abilify prescriptions are still flying out of doctors’ offices like there’s no tomorrow.

And while we know that prices of prescription drugs are totally out of control and can wallop your wallet, incredibly, Abilify can send you to the brink of financial ruin even when your Rx itself only costs a few bucks!

More than you gambled on

Denise Miley is one of many patients who said that she just couldn’t shake the desire to gamble after starting up on Abilify. For Denise, the urge to go to a nearby casino was so overwhelming that even her loving family, including four boys, weren’t enough to keep her home.

In just a few months, the Minnesota woman had managed to lose $156,000 while playing high-stakes blackjack.

And while that may sound like a fortune, there appears to be no limit to how much this drug-induced habit can drain you – because another woman who took Abilify, Christina Millisic, plowed through a whopping $400,000 by gambling and shopping.

Those are just two sad stories of life savings gone down the tubes, homes lost, and relationships destroyed — all, the victims say, because they took the drug Abilify.

Now, around 700 lawsuits holding Bristol-Myers Squibb and Japanese drugmaker Otsuka responsible are piling up in a Florida courtroom. Cases are also being filed in Nevada, where attorneys say that easy access to casinos helped fuel the problem.

While all of these lawsuits might sound a little bit nuts, two years ago, even the FDA was forced to admit that there was something odd going on. That’s when the agency issued a warning about aripiprazole, the active ingredient in three drugs: Abilify, Abilify Maintena, and Aristada, a med used to treat schizophrenia.

At the time, the agency said that while “pathological gambling” is already listed as a side effect, that doesn’t “entirely reflect the nature of the impulse-control risk” the feds identified. So, a full two years after Canadian health officials slapped additional warnings onto the Abilify package, the FDA finally followed suit.

Now, the package contains numerous mentions of compulsive behaviors – including “sexual,” shopping, “binge” eating, and other “urges” – linked to the drug.

But honestly, if you got that far on the book-length label (if you’ve bothered to read it at all), I would hope that the risk of suffering a deadly stroke, neuroleptic malignant syndrome (a “serious condition that can lead to death”), high blood sugar, diabetes, uncontrollable body movements, weight gain, and high cholesterol would have stopped you first!

The Abilify package also warns that doctors need to ask patients if they’re having any “new or intense” sexual or gambling “urges,” as patients may not be inclined to bring that up on their own. No kidding.

Unbelievably, none of this news has appeared to do anything to dampen Abilify sales.

And now, the drugmakers want to be sure that you always ask your doctor and pharmacist for brand-name Abilify. The drug’s website tells you how to get a savings card (fully endorsed by “Honest Abe, the ambassador of savings”) so that you’ll only have to pay five bucks to get the official version of the drug!

But then, that may be all a lot of Abilify users will end up being able to afford, anyway!

The best news, however, is that once people stop taking the drug, these “urges” almost always go away.

Of course, if you want to protect your nest egg, an even better idea would be to never start taking Abilify in the first place.

“Nevadans’ lawsuit says drug triggers compulsive gambling” Jessie Bekker, March 7, 2018, Las Vegas Review-Journal, reviewjournal.com