Repeated activation of mania by atypical antipsychotics in a patient.

A 50-year-old, white female patient was diagnosed with schizophrenia in her teens. Her illness did not respond adequately to treatment until she was placed on a combination of fluoxetine and conventional antipsychotics. She discontinued the conventional antipsychotics on a number of occasions, which caused her to become psychotic, but not manic. On two separate occasions she was placed on atypical antipsychotics that were associated with the occurrence of manic symptoms. Once the patient was restarted on conventional antipsychotics, she remained stable.