Hirsutism in a Female Adolescent Induced by Long-Acting Injectable Risperidone
May 2013
in “
The primary care companion for CNS disorders
”
TLDR A teenage girl's excessive hair growth was caused by a medication for mania, but improved after stopping the medication.
In 2013, a case study detailed a 16-year-old girl who developed hirsutism (excessive hair growth) and galactorrhea (milk discharge from breasts) after being treated with long-acting injectable risperidone for mania with psychotic features. Her serum prolactin level was elevated to 187 ng/mL. After discontinuing risperidone and starting lithium, the galactorrhea resolved within a week and the hirsutism gradually resolved after a month. The authors suggested that risperidone's vasodilatory effects could have contributed to the hirsutism, similar to minoxidil's effect on androgenic alopecia. They recommended clinicians to monitor patients for this potential side effect.
