However, in contrast to this cited case, our patients only withheld gabapentin for about 6 hours, not several days. Furthermore, the geriatric population is prone to abnormal

involuntary movements that gabapentin might be predicted to suppress. A noteworthy contribution of the present article is that it reports the efficacy of gabapentin when established drugs, namely benzodiazepines and a beta blocker, failed to deliver relief in treating akathisia. If this observation can be confirmed in a controlled trial, gabapentin might be a useful addition to the pharmacological armamentarium for treating akathisia. Footnotes Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Conflict of interest selleck chemicals llc statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Contributor Information Maria A. Sullivan, Associate Clinical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA. Robert Wilbur, Robert Wilbur Associates, 125 West 96th Street, Suite 6K, New York, NY 10025, USA.
The

invention of chlorpromazine, a first-generation antipsychotic, in 1950 by Pierre Deniker and Jean Delay heralded Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a major revolution in the field of psychopharmacology. While the worrisome extrapyramidal side effects that are frequent with most of the first-generation antipsychotics were offset at least partially by the advent of second-generation antipsychotics, unfortunately these second-generation drugs have potentially serious side effects of their own. Risperidone, a benzoxazole derivative is a widely used second-generation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical antipsychotic drug which exerts its action via the blockade of dopamine (D2) and serotonin (5HT2) receptors in the limbic system. The commonly reported side effects related to risperidone include dizziness, nausea, weight gain, sleep disturbances,

and sexual dysfunction, which is secondary to hyperprolactinaemia. A rather rare and very much less documented [Razaq and Samma, 2004] side effect of risperidone is Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical hypothermia: traditionally defined as a drop in core body temperature below 35°C (95°F) [Lalith et al. 2011]. Hypothermia in patients using an antipsychotic drug is a serious, unpredictable, type B adverse event frequently leading to hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admission and sometimes even to death [van Marum et al. 2007]. While the hypothermic effects of antipsychotic drugs are less well known as opposed to the medroxyprogesterone hyperthermic effects such as malignant neuroleptic syndrome [Hägg et al. 2001], none or a few if any cases were reported with the use of risperidone in warm tropical countries in areas such as Asia. Here we report a case who has been treated for bipolar affective disorder for a considerable period of time with risperidone in a South Asian country, who went on to develop hypothermia which was reversed with the withdrawal of the offending drug.