Risperidone-induced mania: An emergent complication of treatment

The occurrence of manic/hypomanic switch in patients being treated with risperidone has been reported by various authors, and they have described a variety of strategies for their management. In this report, we describe two cases of induction of elevated mood symptoms in patients treated with risperidone. We propose that the emergence of these symptoms may be a complication of treatment with this drug in susceptible individuals, of which the clinicians should be aware, mainly in those diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We then discuss a few findings that might be useful in the management of such cases. We thereby also propose a mechanism for such an induction.