Has anyone used SSRIs and had problems with weight gain? right now i’m at about 25% bodyfat. So i’m fat, but i’m not hella fat. i really want to try SSRIs but don’t want to get to 40% bf anytime soon because i find that i can easily lose weight, but i always gain 3x as much back. So i am very wary.
What drugs did you have good experiences with? I don’t want to try paxil because its highly addictive, expensive and causes alot of weight gain. i was personally thinking of prozac or zoloft because they are cheap (generics are under $1 a pill now) and supposedly cause less weight gain. Plus prozac is less addictive than something like paxil, i think.
Any experiences with SSRIs and weight gain? Did anything help to prevent the gain in the first place? The thing about me is, i can lose weight, but i don’t just gain it back, i gain 3x as much back. its happened the last 3 times i lost weight and i am not willing to risk doing that anymore.
I really don’t know if Paxil is now being called addictive per se, just that it - and other SSRIs - can cause nasty discontinuation syndrome if you stop taking them. Even within the same class of SSRIs, YMMV. For instance, I had pesky sexual side effects on both Prozac and Paxil, but not on Celexa. By the same token, you might gain weight on one SSRI but not on another.
I do know that one antidepressant (not an SSRI) that is not known to cause weight gain - but instead, weight loss in many cases - is Wellbutrin SR.
IANAD or pharmacist or pharmacologist or psychiatrist, or any of that stuff.
I was on celexa last year and I did gain some weight. After 3 months I told my doctor I wasn’t taking it anymore, it wasn’t worth it. Check out this site for some info.
I’m on Celexa. According to the perscribing physician, it and a similar drug (I’m thinking Lexapro, but I could be wrong) have the least chance of weight gain as a side effect. But, as with all SSRIs, a lot depends on the person taking it.
SSRIs do have more side effects than weight gain. They can include loss of sex drive, severely dry mouth, diarrhea, and incredibl drowsiness among others. And it seems what causes horrible side effects in one person will cause next to none in another. So work with a good physician to find the right perscription and dosage for you.
And, as scott evil mentioned, you can’t stop taking SSRIs cold turkey without problems. Heck, if I miss one dose (and I’m on a rather small perscription of 20 mg), I get horrid nightmares and am a raging, moody bitch the next day!
I was on Prozac for several years and Lexapro (a more specialized version of Celexa) for a few months, and neither caused weight gain. However, I do try to stay active, and I was working out every other day when I started the Lexapro.
Prozac (all of this, of course, in ‘in my own experience’) did not have any side effects. I had a friend on Paxil, and he would feel sick if he didn’t take his dose that day; Prozac didn’t do that. But as far as I know, Paxil is more for anti-anxiety than Prozac.
The Lexapro is really new and they don’t seem to know what the side effects are…I would also imagine that it’s more expensive (I do have insurance, and my copay is three times what Prozac was). I haven’t really noticed any side effects from it.
Good luck, and sorry you have to go through this.
The onset and severity of SSRI discontinuation syndrome has a lot to do with the half life of the drug. Prozac has a very long half life; Paxil a very short one. I know that two or three days without Celexa and I start getting the so-called “brain shocks.”
I’m Medical Power of Attorney for a person with multiple health and psychiatric issues. Some SSRI’s are weight neutral, some are gain, very few are lose.
In my research, Wellbutrin, though not an SSRI, is an excellent place to start for depression medication, as side effects are fewer and withdrawal is easy. Coming off ANY SSRI is a bad situation unless done slowly.
Wellbutrin is also marketed as Zyban, for tobacco smokers to use to break their addiction. As such, they are now studying the efficacy of Zyban as a weight-loss aid, hoping to remarket it AGAIN under a new name. Still gonna be Wellbutrin. Still gonna work the same. (Still gonna be less expensive marketed as Wellbutrin, too.)
My Celexa has not caused me any appreciable weight gain as of this time - I’ve been taking it since April 2002. It had very few side effects for me (there is another poster on this board who had a horrible time with it, so keep in mine YMMV and it may take time to find the drug that’s right for you, if any.)
If I understand this right, they don’t “cause” weight gain; rather, they cause increased appetite and (in my case) a craving for sweets and carbs. That leads to weight gain. If you have a good plan for staying active and a good plan for watching what you eat, then you may be able to avoid gaining weight on SSRIs.
I know it’s a fine point and might seem like nitpicking, but I don’t want to give people the impression that SSRIs make your body store more fat regardless of diet and exercise. Unless they really do (which is news to me).
I was on Prozac for a few years. My psychiatrist asked me during a regular checkup how my weight was doing. She also said that for some reason, people on Prozac gain weight after being on the drug for 3-4 yrs or so. So, yes, I did gain weight in the last 2 years on Zac (some of it due to bouts of depression (again) from infertility treatments).
Since I’ve been off of it (since Dec due to pregnancy) I don’t crave as much food as I did while on Prozac. Go figure. The pregnancy hormones could screw all that up as well. But I think I have noticed a difference. (Still not craving particular foods as I was on Zac).
FWIW, I have been taking Zoloft since March and I feel much better taking it. I haven’t gained any weight as a result of it and in fact lost 4 pounds because I had so much energy to exercise, something very new for a chronic depression sufferer. I tried Wellbutrin and had a bad experience with uncontrollable mood swings Hope that helps.
I did gain weight on Prozac, and according to my doctor, that was one of the expected side effects. I also lost the weight when I went off the drug, so it wasn’t permanent for me.
I can’t speak for others, CrankyAsAnOldMan, but in my case, I did not increase my food intake all that much – mostly because I was too darn poor. And I certainly didn’t change my diet when I went off Prozac, yet the weight came off.
As I said, everyone is different. All you can do is try the appropriate drug, see if you experience side effects and weight them against the benefit you get.
Hope that helps.