Plaintiffs have asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consider transferring all federal Abilify compulsive behavior cases to Florida for coordinated and consolidated pretrial hearings.
If an Abilify MDL is established, lawsuits from various U.S. District Courts will be transferred to one judge for pretrial proceedings, eliminating the need for duplicative discovery and potentially contradictory rulings from different judges that may lead to doubt concerning the outcome of the cases.
What is Abilify?
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), Ability (generic name Aripiprazole) is in a class of medications called atypical antipsychotics that work by changing the activity of certain natural substances in the brain. Abilify was first introduced in the U.S. in 2002.
Aripiprazole is used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia in adults and teenagers 13 years of age and older. It is also used alone or with other medications to treat episodes of mania in adults, teenagers, and children 10 years of age and older, and those with bipolar disorder, a disease that causes episodes of depression, episodes of mania, and other abnormal moods.
It is also used with an antidepressant to treat depression when symptoms cannot be controlled by the antidepressant alone, and to treat children 6 to 17 years of age who have autistic disorder, a developmental problem that causes difficulty communicating and interacting with others. Aripiprazole may help control irritable behavior such as aggression, temper tantrums, and frequent mood changes in these children.
Abilify and Compulsive Behaviors
The Abilify lawsuits make allegations that drug makers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. failed to adequately warn patients in the U.S. of the risks of compulsive behaviors associated with Abilify use, including compulsive gambling, eating, shopping, and sexual addiction.
