Aripiprazole-Induced Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: A Case Study

The use of medications in management of disease is an integral part of treatment to patients in both the inpatient and outpatient setting; however, these medications often have risk of adverse effects associated with their benefits of use. Adverse cutaneous reactions are one of the most frequent types of adverse drug reactions. Two major phenotypes of cutaneous adverse drug reactions are toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), and Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS). Aripiprazole is an antipsychotic drug with a well-documented profile of adverse effects for physicians to be aware of; however, SJS/TEN is not known to be included in that profile.

The authors encountered a case of aripiprazole-induced SJS/TEN and used the electronic medical records from this encounter to summarize this novel case in detail. Existing literature was reviewed using public databases for evaluation of similar cases.

We present a case of SJS/TEN induced by aripiprazole use for bipolar disorder, type 1, which is not an adverse effect of the drug that has been documented in the literature. We include patient history, hospital course, images, and treatment of disease throughout admission as well as a thorough discussion of the topic.

We present a case of an adverse drug reaction that has not previously been documented in the literature with the goal of informing readers of the potential for this life-threatening atypical effect and the severity of disease it may cause.